


Fangs And Frappuccinos

by decadent_mousse



Series: Blood And Pumpkin Spice [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Gore, Heartbeat Kink, M/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-01-06 23:18:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 54,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1112688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Months have passed since the events of November.  Business at Coyote Tango is finally starting to pick up again, Newt and Hermann recently moved in together, and no one's tried to kill either of them recently - which is always a plus.  Overall, things have been going pretty well...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Huge, massive thanks to AtypicalOwl for coming up with the title for this thing, because I honestly had no idea what I was going to call it otherwise. Thank you, friend!
> 
> Also many, many thanks to everyone who's left kudos and comments on Blood And Pumpkin Spice. I... probably would have kept plodding along regardless because this AU has EATEN MY BRAIN, but still, everyone's support has been sort of mind-blowing and I'm really glad that people enjoyed the last fic and stuck with me through it. I hope you'll enjoy this fic as much as you enjoyed the last one!
> 
> Like before, I'll add tags for characters and stuff as they become relevant.
> 
> Also, check out this [awesome cover art](http://bravinto.tumblr.com/post/100544602082/inktober-continues-cover-art-for-the-second-part) bravinto made!

The lift creaked ominously as it moved upward.  One would have assumed judging by the overall quality of the building that the lift would have been of comparable quality, but Hermann had his doubts.  Every once in awhile it would shudder and groan, and while it hadn’t done anything worse than that in the five months Newton had resided there – or the two months since Hermann had moved in – he still didn’t trust it.  It finally shuddered to a stop as though it wasn’t sure whether it actually wanted to stop or not and Hermann hurried out before it had a chance to change its mind.

It didn’t take him long to realize Newton wasn’t home.  He had insisted on taking the night off, so Hermann wasn’t entirely certain where he was.  Maybe he had decided to go to work, after all.  Hermann pushed down the disappointment that welled up at the thought.  He had long since outgrown the notion that his birthday was some spectacular event that warranted a celebration.  He should have been relieved, really – he’d half-expected Newton to do something ridiculous like throw a surprise party, and the party his co-workers had thrown for him at work had been more than enough excitement for one day.

As if on cue, his cell phone rang.  Sighing, he dug it out of his pocket and answered it.  “Hello?”

A familiar voice sang, “Happy birthday to you–“

“Dear God,” Hermann muttered, casting his eyes heavenward.

“Happy birthday to you–“

“Newton–“

“Happy birthday, dear Hermann!  Happy birthday to you!”

“…Are you quite finished?”

“Well, not _quite_ , but the rest I can’t do over the phone.  I hope you didn’t eat too much cake and stuff at work, because man, I am going to make you the _best_ dinner tonight.  It’s gonna blow your mind.  Are you home yet?”

“Yes, I just got here.”  Hermann paused.  “Are you at Coyote Tango?”

“What?  No, dude.  I’m at the grocery store, getting some stuff.  I told you I was taking tonight off.”

“I thought perhaps you had changed your mind.”

“Aww, did you seriously think I skipped out on your birthday?”

Hermann felt a blush creeping up his face.  “Newton, I am not a child, I don’t need–“

“Because first of all,” Newton continued, “if I was gonna do that at the last minute, I would at least let you know about it, and second of all, it’d have to be one hell of an emergency at the coffee shop to get me to go into work on my boyfriend’s birthday.  Like, I dunno, if the fate of the world depended on my ability to whip up a mean frappuccino, then sure, _maybe_.  Hey, have you been out on the terrace since you got home?”

The abrupt change of subject threw Hermann off.  “What?  No.”  He narrowed his eyes.  “Why?”

“No reason.”

“Newton.”

“I might’ve… done a thing.”

“Is this ‘thing’ going to get us kicked out of the building?”

“Gee, I dunno, man,” Newton replied innocently – _too_ innocently.  “Maybe you should go check.”

Hermann could feel a cold tendril of dread wrapping itself around his insides.  The last time Newton had “done a thing” they’d had to have the floor refinished and their rent had gone up.  “Newton–“

Newt cut him off hurriedly.  “Sorry, Hermann, I gotta go.  I’m holding up the line and the cashier looks like she wants to smother me with a grocery bag.  I’ll see you when I get home, okay?  Love you!  Bye!”  Then the line went dead.

Hermann put his phone back in his pocket and steeled himself for whatever awaited him.  He saw it before he actually reached the sliding glass door that led out onto the terrace and stared at it for several minutes before opening the door and going outside. 

It was a telescope.  It was _very_ nice, and probably also very expensive and Hermann just stood there gawking at it for awhile before reaching over and removing the big blue bow Newton had stuck on top of it.  There was a small card attached to it that said – in Newton’s familiar, borderline incomprehensible handwriting – “Happy Birthday, Hermann!”

Hermann smiled.

~

He was still fiddling with the telescope when Newton got home. 

“Hermann?”

“I’m out here,” he replied, not bothering to shout. 

He looked up from the telescope when he heard the door slide open.  Newt came outside, face brightening when he saw him standing next to the telescope. 

“So, do you like it?  I did a bunch of research before I bought it to be sure that I got a really good one, but–“

“It’s perfect,” he replied, voice soft.

Newt grinned at him.  “Yeah?”

“Yes, but… Newton, this couldn’t have been cheap.”

The other man rolled his eyes.  “Dude, I’m not telling you how much it cost.  Forget it.”

That just made him all the more suspicious.  Telescopes could easily cost hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars.  “But–“

“Hermann, don’t.”  Newton walked over to him and dragged him into a warm embrace.  “It’s a gift.  Just accept it, okay?  Now you can stargaze whenever you want.”

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”  Newt kissed him on the cheek and tugged on him.  “Okay, come on, dinner time.”

~

“I hope you’re in the mood for linguine – and shrimp.  And cake for dessert.  I mean, I know you probably ate cake earlier, but you can never have _too much_ cake, right?”

Hermann was reasonably certain that there was, indeed, such a thing as too much cake – and too much food, in general.  The amount of items Newton was pulling out of the grocery bags was alarming.  “Newton, how much of this are you going to use tonight?”

“All of it, dude.”

“That– that’s–“

“Okay, I know it’s a lot, but I figure whatever we don’t eat, we can save for later.  Better to have extra food than not enough, y’know?  Besides, I think you’re underestimating my ability to eat _a lot_.”

“And I think you’re _over_ estimating it.  Remember the incident at the buffet?”

“Dude, that was a completely isolated incident.  I can’t believe you’re even bringing that up.”

Among Newton’s various superhuman abilities, the ability to eat vast quantities of food wasn’t actually one of them.  Hermann had learned the hard way some months ago that just because Newton could eat – and enjoyed eating – regular food didn’t mean he _should_ eat too much of it.  That wasn’t an experience he cared to repeat.

Newton gave him his best earnest expression, which by now Hermann knew to be a little _too_ earnest to be genuine.  “Okay, look, I promise not to eat too much.  If there’s a lot left over I’ll just take the rest to work tomorrow night.  If I leave it in the break-room, it’ll be gone in twenty-four hours, trust me.” 

~

After they ate, Newton decided to wash the dishes and shooed Hermann out of the kitchen when he tried to help.  “Hermann, what part of ‘it’s your birthday’ are you not getting?  It won’t take me long to do them myself.”  He must’ve noticed the disgruntled look on Hermann’s face, because he added with a smile.  “You need to chill out, babe.  Look, I know relaxing is a really difficult concept for you to grasp, but seriously, I’ve got this.”

So Hermann went into the living room, settled onto the couch, and started grading the latest wave of exams.  Miraculously enough, they were getting noticeably less painful to wade through – it almost seemed as if his students were actually starting to pay attention in class, though he didn’t dare begin to hope.  It probably wasn’t exactly what Newton had in mind when he’d chased him out of the kitchen, but Hermann still had _things_ to get done – birthday or not. 

A few minutes later, Newt came out of the kitchen, shaking his head when he saw what Hermann was up to.  “So how was work?  Did they throw you a party or something?”

“Or something.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound good.”

Hermann stared intently at his work and tried to ignore the way Newton’s eyes bored into him inquisitively. 

“Oh, wow.  You know if you keep staring at those papers like that I think they might spontaneously combust or something.  What happened?  They didn’t… _not_ do anything for your birthday, did they?  I mean, back in my day, the rest of the faculty would at least spring for a small cake or something.”

He looked up at Newton and raised an eyebrow.  “Did you just say ‘back in my day?’”

Newt looked mildly embarrassed for a split second before giving him a crooked smile.  “I know it’s easy to forget because I’m so devilishly handsome, but I’m pushing _sixty_ , dude.  If we had a lawn, I’d probably be telling kids to get off it.”

Hermann snorted and looked back down.  “They threw me a surprise party.”

“Wow, really?  Nice!”  When he seemed to notice Hermann’s distinct lack of enthusiasm, he faltered.  “Or… not.  Okay, come on, Hermann, talk to me.  What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“There was cake, and everyone was very gracious.”  Hermann glared down at the papers he was grading – mostly because they were the closest thing available to glare at.  “To my face, at any rate.”               

“Uh oh.”

Newton walked over, and Hermann thought he was going to sit down, but instead he leaned on the back of the couch.

“Two of my co-workers were gossiping amongst themselves and thought they were speaking more quietly than they actually were.  Apparently I didn’t react enthusiastically enough to the party for their liking.  I’m ‘antisocial’ and ‘snooty,’ and at one point I believe I caught something along the lines of ‘has a block of ice where his heart should be.’”

“Aww, Hermann.”

“I don’t care what they think of me.” 

“Yeah.  Yeah, you do, but you shouldn’t."  Newt wrapped his arms around him.  “Man, what kind of assholes say stuff like that?  On your _birthday_?  Sure, you’re not exactly a social butterfly, and you can be kind of… well, not snooty – kinda prickly, maybe, a little bit – as for the block of ice thing, well, I know for a _fact_ that’s not true.”  His lips brushed across the edge of his ear. 

“Hmph.”

Newt rested his chin on Hermann’s shoulder.  “Oh, come on, that’s all I get?  A ‘hmph?’  Not even a smile?  Today’s supposed to be a _good_ day.  I got you an awesome present, I made you an awesome dinner…”

“Dinner was wonderful,” Hermann relented. 

“I knew you’d like it.”

“…That telescope must have cost a fortune.”

“I’m still not telling you how much it was,” Newton replied, breath warm against his neck.  “It was worth every penny, though.”

Hermann continued grading papers – or tried to.  It was rather difficult once Newt started kissing him.  “Newton, I am trying to work, and that is distracting.”

“Oh no, is it?  Is it really, _really_ distracting?  I’m so sorry.”  He didn’t sound even remotely apologetic, and Hermann could feel him grinning against his skin.

“I’m ignoring you,” Hermann grumbled.  He stared very intently at the paper in his hands and tried his best to feign disinterest.  It didn’t work particularly well, of course, because a moment later Newton nipped playfully at his throat and Hermann couldn’t hide the way it made his pulse race.

“Still ignoring me?”

“You are _intolerable_ ,” Hermann muttered, taking off his reading glasses and setting his stack of papers aside.

“Says the guy who’s still working when he should be relaxing and having fun on his birthday.  You’re such a dweeb.”

He turned his head to fire off a retort and Newt kissed him. 

“Pretty cute, though,” Newton whispered against his mouth.  “So I _might_ keep you.”

Hermann rolled his eyes.  “I’m touched.”

“Not nearly as touched as you’re gonna be.”

It was a _ridiculous_ line, and he felt a bit ridiculous for the way it made his heart pound.  “Newton, get over here.  Now.”

Newt laid a hand on Hermann’s chest.  “Mmm.  Sorry, did you say something?”

Hermann gave him an offended look.  “Are you genuinely trying to seduce me, or are you just hungry?”

“Well, I fed tonight already, but–“ he wiggled his eyebrows and grinned, “–I always have room for you.  Kind of like Jell-O.”

“Yes, that’s _very_ romantic, Newton.  Are you certain you aren’t exceeding your quota for terrible pick-up lines this evening?”  His tone was chiding, but he could feel the corners of his mouth quirk upward entirely of their own volition.

“Aha!  See, there it is!  I knew there was a smile in there somewhere.”

“So your terrible seduction methods were simply a ploy to get me to smile?”

Newt grinned.  “Well, that, and this…“  With that he grabbed the stack of papers Hermann had set aside and took off with them. 

“Newton, what in God’s name are you doing?!”

Newt waved the papers in the air victoriously.  “I’m going to go hide these somewhere you’ll never find them, at least until your birthday’s over.”

Hermann glared at him.  “You–“

“I know, I know!  I’m an evil, evil vampire!  Someone really oughtta chase me into the bedroom and smite me!”  Then he winked, spun around, and fled in the direction of the bedroom.

Hermann sighed and stared stubbornly at a far-off wall for several minutes before getting up and storming after him.  By the time he reached the bedroom, Newt was sprawled out on the bed in what was probably supposed to be a “come hither” fashion.  Mostly, it just looked ridiculous – although it wasn’t entirely ineffective.

“Newton.”

“Hermann.”

“Where did you put my work?”

“Somewhere you’ll never, ever find it.”

Hermann narrowed his eyes.  “It’s in the sock drawer, isn’t it?”

Newton stared at him for a moment before shaking his head, expression carefully neutral – or, at least, as neutral as Newton’s face ever got, which wasn’t very.  “Nope.  No, it is not.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Hermann replied with an exasperated sigh, walking over to the dresser and opening the sock drawer.  There, right at the top, was his work – slightly rumpled, but otherwise unharmed. 

“Dude, come on.  It’s your birthday,” the other man said, and his pleading tone made Hermann glance back towards the bed.  Newt sighed heavily, closing his eyes and slumping against the mattress in defeat.  Hermann wasn’t fooled for a second.  “You still have a present left to unwrap, but I mean– if you _really_ don’t want it…  Maybe I’ll just take a nap.”

“Newton, you don’t take naps.”

“Oh, yeah?  Watch me, dude.”  He yawned and stretched, t-shirt riding up and revealing a small expanse of tattooed flesh.  His eyes were still shut, but Hermann had a nagging suspicion that he was completely aware of what he was doing.

Hermann closed the sock drawer and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. 

Newton cracked one eye open.  “Oh, are you still here?”

“You must think you’re very clever.”

“Oh, I _know_ I’m clever,” Newt replied with a fangy grin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Newt's new apartment in one of those nice loft apartment things. Tendo got it for him back in January and it was like 50% a birthday gift and 50% a "I'm really worried that someone is going to break into your apartment and try to murder you again so you should move maybe" gift. (Plus, he figured it was probably only a matter of time until Hermann moved in, and Newt's old apartment was *not* designed with two people in mind.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, this chapter ended up being on the shorter side. I'm... I'm not sure how that happened, to be honest. It felt long when I was writing it. XD

Newt had Hermann right where he wanted him, and they both knew it.  For a second – a really, really brief second – he’d been a little bit worried that Hermann wasn’t going to take the bait.  Then he had closed the sock drawer, and it took a lot of self-restraint not to gloat.

Well, okay, so he gloated _a little_.  After all, getting Hermann to relax was a pretty amazing achievement. 

Still grinning to himself, he closed his eyes and did his best to feign disinterest.  He felt one of Hermann’s hands slide underneath his t-shirt and across his belly.  Newt managed to hold completely still – he didn’t even _squirm_ , and he really felt like he deserved an award for that or something.

Hermann’s fingertips brushed across his hips and he bit back a groan.  Hermann’s hand dragged across the denim that stood between him and Newt’s raging boner and yeah, no, playing hard to get _really_ wasn’t going to work for him.  He sat up. 

“Okay, so I had this plan to hold still and let you have your way with me, but uh, I don’t think I can actually hold still for that long.”

Hermann smirked.  “What a shocking turn of events.”

He leaned in and kissed him as hard as he could get away with without accidentally nicking him with his fangs.  Hermann plucked his glasses off his face and tugged at his t-shirt, and Newt managed to resist kissing him for long enough to let him tug it up and over his head.

Newt laughed and started unbuttoning Hermann’s sweater-vest.  “Dude, it’s _June_ – how do you wear all this crap all day long without getting heat stroke?”

After stripping away what had to have been close to a thousand layers of clothing, Newt finally found Hermann underneath all of it.  He dipped down and kissed him just below the collar bone, lightly sucking on the flesh there and Hermann moaned, heart beating so hard Newt could feel it against his mouth. 

Newt’s cock strained against his pants as he leaned in closer and gently pushed Hermann down onto the bed.  Hermann’s fingers fumbled with the buttons of Newt’s jeans and Newt hadn’t quite planned on biting him just yet, but when he felt Hermann’s fingers wrap around him, he bit down – not very hard, but hard enough to draw blood.

Hermann gasped and Newt felt one of his hands grip his hair and his first thought was _oh shit too soon sorry_ , but before his mouth could catch up with his brain and get the words out, he realized Hermann wasn’t trying to pull him away – he was holding him in place.

“Newton,” Hermann said, in a low voice that was almost kind of similar to that reprimanding tone he used sometimes – only hotter.  Really, if that was the kind of voice he used when he was teaching, no wonder so many of his students had trouble staying focused in class.

Newt smiled and sucked at the bite.  It wasn’t very deep, and it wasn’t bleeding much – just enough for a taste.  He lapped at it with his tongue until the bleeding stopped and couldn’t help but chuckle at the noises Hermann was making.  When he lifted his head, he barely had time to lick the blood off his lips before the other man kissed him, fingers still tangled in his hair. 

Newt unbuckled Hermann’s belt and was trying to unbutton his pants when the movement of Hermann’s fingers around his dick became too much for him to handle and he came with a muffled groan.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several small objects go flying through the air.

Hermann broke off the kiss and glanced down, face flushed, and Newt followed his gaze.  In the throes of passion he had ripped Hermann’s pants open, and apparently popped all the buttons off of them in the process.

He laughed breathlessly.  “Uh, oops.”

“You’re never satisfied until you’ve ruined _someone’s_ pants.”

“They’re not _ruined_ , dude.  We can find the buttons later and stitch them back on.”

“ _You_ can find the buttons later and stitch them back on.  Weren’t you saying earlier that I should be relaxing on my birthday?  Besides, you’re always boasting about your keen vampire senses – I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding them on your own.”

Newt gave him a look.  “ _Wow_ , you’re lucky I love you.”

Hermann’s lips twitched in that way they did when he was trying really, really hard not to smile and not doing a very good job of it and his eyes were sparkling.  Hermann’s co-workers didn’t know what they were talking about.  Hermann was one the warmest people he’d ever met – he just didn’t show it to everyone.

“Or– or I’m lucky you love me, whichever,” Newt said with a lopsided smile and kissed him again.

~

He leaned over Hermann and pushed in slowly.  Hermann’s heart damn near soared, and Newt almost lost it right then and there.  He took a deep, shaky breath and did his best to rein himself in.  He could pace himself – he wasn’t _great_ at pacing himself, but he could do it. 

He closed his eyes for a minute and just listened to the sound of Hermann’s heartbeat – fast, but steady.  Steady, yeah, okay – he could do that.  At least, he was pretty sure he could, but after a few minutes of that he felt about ready to vibrate out of his skin.  He started going a little bit harder and a little bit faster.

Hermann gasped his name, and Newt almost couldn’t hear it over the blood pounding in his ears – he wasn’t even sure if it was his or Hermann’s.

He leaned down and brushed his lips across Hermann’s back.  “Am I hurting you?”

Hermann laughed – like really, seriously laughed and it never stopped being the most beautiful sound Newt had ever heard.  “No, you’re not.”

That was all the reassurance he needed.  Newt started thrusting harder and deeper.  Hermann’s breathing grew harsher and more erratic and so did Newt’s movements.  Eventually they both came with a shudder that rippled hard through both of them.

Newt dropped down on the bed, breathing heavily.  Hermann rolled over, flushed and panting, and Newt wrapped an arm around his shoulders.  The other man shifted slightly, adjusting the position of his leg and laying his head on Newt’s chest. 

“Comfy?”

Hermann snorted.  “Sore.”

“Good sore or bad sore?”

“Good, primarily.”

Newt grinned.  “That was… _wow_.”

“Yes,” Hermann breathed.  “Yes, it was.”

“Well, happy birthday to _you_ , babe.”

Hermann sighed.  “You aren’t going to start singing again, are you?”

~

Newt stayed in bed for awhile, even after Hermann dozed off.  He’d had more planned for the night, but he couldn’t really blame the guy for falling asleep – he’d had a rough day at work, and then Newt had sort of fucked him senseless.  Once he was sure Hermann was sound enough asleep that he wasn’t going to disturb him, he quietly snuck out of bed and went to take a shower. 

After he showered, he put on some boxers and t-shirt, and tiptoed out of the bedroom.  There was a huge chocolate and strawberry cake with his name on it waiting for him in the kitchen.  Well, technically, Hermann’s name was on it, but that was a minor detail.  Besides, it wasn’t like he planned on eating _all_ of it.  Just one – _maybe_ two – pieces. 

Three pieces of cake later, he was sitting on the couch watching an X-Files marathon, wondering if a fourth piece of cake would be too much.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermann woke up ten minutes before his alarm went off.  Ordinarily, he would’ve just dragged himself out of bed early, but this morning he was inclined to stay in bed a few minutes longer.  At least until he rolled over and realized Newton wasn’t in bed with him.  It was disappointing, but not surprising – Newton had a habit of losing track of time and not reaching the bedroom before the sun came up. 

He got out of bed with a bit more difficulty than usual and wrapped a sheet around his waist before heading out into the living room, still blinking the sleep from his eyes. 

Newton was sprawled out on the couch, a plate with a half-eaten piece of cake sitting precariously on his chest.  The television was still on, volume low, though whatever had been on when Newton had been watching it had long since given way to early morning infomercials. 

Hermann took the plate and laid it on the coffee table.  He also took the fork that Newton still held in his hand.  When his fingers brushed across his skin, Newton’s eyes fluttered open and he blinked at Hermann groggily. 

“Hey.”

“I thought you were asleep.”

“Mmm, ‘m awake.”

Hermann smiled softly.  “Not very.”

“ _Very_ ,” Newt grumbled indignantly.

“Yes, of course, my mistake.” 

“Am I in bed?”

“No, Newton, you’re on the couch.”

“Should go to bed.”  Newt made a move to sit up, and frankly, Hermann was surprised he was even still _capable_ of movement, as lethargic as he was. 

He put a hand on Newton’s chest and gently pushed him back down.  The other man huffed but didn’t try to sit up again, which just went to show just how far gone he was.  If he’d been more awake, he would’ve been far more insistent.  Then again, if he’d been more awake, Hermann might have actually trusted him to make it to the bedroom without passing out.

“Dude.”

“Do not ‘dude’ me.  It’d be a miracle if you managed to make it even halfway to the bedroom on your own and I have no interest in trying to drag you the rest of the way.”

Newt blinked at him slowly for several moments before saying again, with more emphasis, “ _Dude_.”

Hermann shook his head.  He honestly couldn’t tell if Newton was just being, well, _Newton_ or if his ability to string words together was succumbing to the encroaching dawn.  Most likely the latter, though he couldn’t entirely rule out the former. 

The other man’s eyes closed and didn’t open again, and Hermann assumed that was the end of it, but when he leaned over and kissed him, Newt sighed softly.

Hermann smiled.  “Go to sleep, Newton.”

“ _You_ go to sleep,” Newt murmured, finally drifting off.

After Hermann showered and got dressed for work, he grabbed a blanket from the closet and draped it over Newton.  Between the warmer weather and the fact that Newt was essentially comatose, he probably didn’t really need it.  On one memorable occasion, he’d slept face-down on the floor all day and was no worse for wear, but Hermann didn’t like leaving him with nothing.

~

Hermann’s day was relatively uneventful, which was a blessing after that birthday party disaster.  It wasn’t that he hadn’t appreciated the _thought_ behind the gesture – he simply was not fond of large social gatherings, especially not ones sprung on him suddenly and without warning.

He spent a bit more time sitting at his desk than usual, because as the day wore on he began to feel the consequences of sex with a very enthusiastic, very strong vampire.  It was probably for the best that they weren’t usually quite that overzealous in bed, but it had been a nice change of pace – albeit a very exhausting one.

He stayed for awhile after classes were over, going over lesson plans and grading the last of the papers he hadn’t gotten around to the night before.  By the time he was finished, it was nine.  If traffic wasn’t too bad, he might even manage to catch Newton before he left for work.  He smiled at the thought.  Between their conflicting work schedules and – more recently – the shorter nights, they didn’t always get to spend much time together. 

~

Hermann was on his way to his car when he noticed a commotion at the far end of the car park.  At first, he was inclined to ignore it, but more and more people were gathering – mostly students – and he supposed he had an obligation as a member of the faculty to go see what all the fuss was about.

He warily approached the crowd of people, craning his neck trying to see what was happening.  When that didn’t work, he grudgingly elbowed his way past a few people, finally managing to get a clear view of what everyone was looking at.  He immediately wished he hadn’t. 

It was Walter.  Hermann had seen him last at the birthday party the day before, and now he was sprawled out on the pavement.  There was blood everywhere – so much of it that, at first, Hermann had a hard time determining where it had all come from.  Then he saw it – his throat had been torn open – no, torn _out_.  There was hardly anything left between his head and torso, and Hermann briefly saw a glint of what looked like bone before he had to avert his eyes, stomach churning and heart pounding.

He immediately thought of Min, then felt foolish.  Min hadn’t been seen or heard from since that incident back in November, and there was no reason to think she would suddenly return now – or that she’d decide to murder a hapless economics professor and leave his body to be found in broad daylight.  If this had happened a year ago, he wouldn’t have even known vampires existed, and he would have assumed some sort of animal was responsible.  It was _entirely possible_ that an animal was responsible, he told himself.

He wasn’t sure if he actually believed that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with the last fic, you can probably expect the chapter length to become proportional to the amount of shit that is hitting the fan. And the shit is definitely beginning to hit the fan. ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a longer chapter this time. Yay? XD

After about a month of sleeping thirteen – closer to fourteen, now – hours a day and feeling like all he ever had time to do was sleep and work, Newt had finally broken down and asked for shorter work hours.  He hated having to do it, but it was only for the summer – once the sun stopped being such a tenacious asshole, he figured he could pick up more hours again. 

At least Raleigh had come back to work a couple months ago.  He was always eager to pick up the slack and Newt figured the poor guy probably needed the extra cash to pay off those astronomical hospital bills he’d racked up after that accident last year, anyway, so it kind of worked out for everyone.

Raleigh was behind the counter when Newt walked in.  “Hey.”

Newt nodded.  “Hey, man.  What’s up?”

“Not much.  Pentecost’s in a business meeting in the back.”

“Kind of late in the day for a business meeting, isn’t it?”

Raleigh shrugged noncommittally.

Newt shrugged back. 

That was pretty much as deep as any of the conversations between them went: brief sentences and vague nods and shrugs.  Newt kind of preferred it that way.  One time he’d tried to have a serious conversation with the guy about coffee brewing methods, and Raleigh had tried to convince him the best way to grind coffee beans was with a blade grinder.  A _blade grinder_.  What was this, the dark ages?  Eventually, they had both agreed to disagree.

Well, okay, no, eventually Pentecost had come in and told them to knock it off because he could hear them arguing all the way from his office.

Newt was curious about whatever was going on back there.  He knew back when business had gotten slow – and he still wasn’t sure why that had happened, because there was no way in hell the coffee at Raiju was better, he refused to believe that – Pentecost had been looking into getting some investors to help expand Coyote Tango’s resources, but Pentecost had been pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.  Newt and Pentecost had a relationship built on a mutual agreement to not ask many questions, though, so Newt tried not to be too nosy.

Key word being “tried.”  Curiosity might have killed the cat, but even a stake through the heart hadn’t managed to kill Newt – so he figured a _little_ curiosity wouldn’t hurt.  He was about two seconds away from sneaking through the break room under the pretense of having to go to the bathroom to try to eavesdrop when the door opened and he was expecting Pentecost to come out, not a man and a woman that were built like friggin’ _tanks_. 

He gawked.  He couldn’t help it.  Raleigh was gawking too, though, so Newt didn’t feel too bad about it. 

The woman – who was shorter than the man, but was still tall enough that she towered over Newt – glanced in his direction.  She did a double-take and looked at him in surprise, but she recovered pretty quickly. 

Before Newt could get his mouth to cooperate with his cartwheeling brain, Pentecost appeared, closing the door behind him.

“Newton, Raleigh.  This is Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky.”

Newt knew the Kaidonovskys.  Not personally, but by reputation.  They’d been on a couple covers of international coffee magazines and he’d read an article once about their booming coffee business.  He’d also read a few articles online from some slightly less reputable sources that had a few things to say about some of their other business ventures – apparently they had their fingers in a lot of pies.

None of those articles had mentioned they were _vampires_ , but then again, he’d have been surprised if they did.  It’s not like they had signs on their foreheads that said VAMPIRE in bright neon letters.  They might as well have, though, as far as Newt’s senses were concerned.   

Raleigh, of course, was completely oblivious.  “Hey.  Nice to meet you.”

The man, Aleksis, looked at Raleigh with all the expressiveness of a statue, but Sasha nodded and smiled.  It was almost like getting smiled at by a shark, and that probably wasn’t a very nice comparison, but god, she was looking at him and Raleigh like she wanted to eat them – and he couldn’t tell if that was just the way she smiled, or if she really _was_ considering eating them.

“Yes, it is a pleasure,” she replied, in accented but clear English.  She spared a glance in Raleigh’s direction, but she seemed more interested in Newt, and he had this embarrassing urge to hop over the counter and go hide somewhere.

“Uh, hi,” he squeaked.

Raleigh snorted.

“Shut up,” Newt muttered.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Gentlemen,” Pentecost interjected, “the Kaidonovskys are here to help oversee the expansion of the shop.  They’re our new business partners.”

Well, that was just _great_.

~

He was still trying to wrap his brain around the whole thing an hour later when Hermann showed up.

Newt was getting pretty good at deciphering Hermann’s moods.  Well, he’d already been pretty good at it from two years of serving him tea, but he’d gotten especially good at it since they’d been together.  It was a weird combination of sound and smell and just a general _sense_ he couldn’t quite describe, and sometimes if he was distracted with other things, he didn’t always pick up on it right away, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights.  He knew something was wrong the second Hermann stepped through the door.  Not just “had a shitty day at work” wrong, but a serious “something terrible has happened” kind of wrong.  It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Hermann walked over to the counter looking shaken and exhausted.

“Hermann, are you okay?”

“Yes, of course.”

Newt crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes.  He was aiming for that stern, penetrating stare that Hermann used on him whenever he was trying to get him to spill his guts.

Hermann just stared back at him with a solemn expression.  “What?”

“Seriously, dude, who died?”

“One of my co-workers.”

Oh.  Oh _shit_.  Out loud, he tactfully and eloquently said, “Oh shit.”

“Yes, that sums up my evening rather nicely.  How was yours?”  He looked like he wanted to throw up.  Actually, this was one of those times where Newt felt incredibly awkward about his enhanced sense of smell, because he was actually pretty sure Hermann had already thrown up at some point.

“Shit.”

“Yes, you keep saying that.”  He was really starting to freak Newt out.  He was obviously upset, but he was being really creepily calm about it, and that meant that whatever had happened must’ve been pretty bad. 

Newt shook his head and walked around the counter and over to Hermann.  “Okay, so when you say someone died…”

Hermann glanced around to make sure none of the few customers sitting around the coffee shop were close enough to hear him, then said quietly, “Something – or someone – tore his throat out and left his mangled corpse in the car park.”

“Wait, _what_?”  Roughly a million different thoughts started spinning around in Newt’s head, and most of them were some variation of _two new vampires in town and suddenly someone’s dead, weird coincidence_.  After all, he knew _he_ hadn’t done it, and he knew Tendo didn’t do it, so that didn’t leave a huge pool of suspects.  “When?”

“Three hours ago, give or take.”  He narrowed his eyes.  “Why?”

“Uh, nothing.”

“Newton–”

“Were you there when it happened?  Are– are you okay?”  God, what a stupid question.  Obviously he wasn’t _okay_.

“I’m fine.  He… he had been lying there for some time already before anyone found him.”

Newt wrapped his arms around him and tugged him towards the door.  “Okay.  Okay, I’m taking you home.”

“You are _not_ driving my car.  We’ve had this conversation before.”

“Well, yeah, fine.  You can drive, but I’m still taking you home.  We’re going home.”

“You can’t just–“

Newt huffed.  “I _can_ just, and I _am_ just.”

Almost right on time, Raleigh was just re-emerging from the storage closet, arms full of bags of coffee beans.

“Hey,” Newt called out to him, “can you cover for me?  I have to bail early tonight.”

“Wh–“

“Great!  Thanks, buddy!” 

Newt had ushered Hermann out the door before Raleigh could protest.

~

They were about halfway home and Newt still wasn’t sure how to bring it up.  He couldn’t just casually go _oh hey, Pentecost’s new business partners are vampires_ , could he?

“Oh hey, Pentecost’s new business partners are vampires.”

Hermann slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to an abrupt stop. 

Newt gaped at him.  “Dude, what the hell?!”

Hermann stared at him like he’d suddenly grown a third eye or a second head and said, tone incredulous.  “What do you mean they’re _vampires_?!”

“Well, I thought that was kinda self-explanatory.”  He could’ve picked a better time to tell him, probably.  Like never – never probably would have been good.  “It’s– it’s not that big of a deal.  Forget I mentioned it.”

“’Not that big of a deal?!’  Newton, one out of three of the vampires I’ve met have tried to _kill_ me – and you.  Min stabbed you with a wooden stake and nearly threw me through a _wall_.”

“Yeah, and I’m one of the other two vampires you’ve met, and _I’ve_ never tried to kill you.”  He licked his lips nervously.  “Well, I mean, there was that one time where I _kind_ of tried to, I guess, but that– that wasn’t on purpose, so it doesn’t count, right?”

Hermann’s expression softened.  “Newton...”

“Tendo hasn’t tried to kill you either,” Newt continued, hastily changing the subject.  “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is just because vampires drink blood and leap tall buildings in a single bound and bench-press cars doesn’t mean they’re _all_ bad.  We shouldn’t just assume these new guys are vicious killers, y’know?  There could be a totally logical explanation that doesn’t involve two very tall, very intimidating Russian vampires going around murdering people.”  That had sounded a lot more reassuring in his head.

Hermann’s pulse was racing anxiously and it was starting to make _Newt’s_ race anxiously.  He’d never thought he’d ever miss the days of awkward vampire boners, but at that moment he’d have taken one of those over this weird synchronicity thing they had going on lately, because it was really hard to be calm and reassuring when, well, he didn’t feel at all calm or reassured himself.

He reached over and took Hermann’s hand.  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said softly, impressed by the way he managed to keep his voice from shaking.  “I promise, it’s going to be okay.”

They sat there in the car for several moments in relative silence.  Hermann’s heartbeat eventually slowed back down to a calmer rate, even though he still looked stressed out.

“… _Can_ you actually bench-press a car?” Hermann asked, finally.

Newt chuckled.  “You know what?  I’m not telling you.  Let me keep some of my air of vampiric mystery.”

“…You can’t, can you?”

“Yeah, okay, no.  No, I can’t.  I did rip a door off of one once, though.  That’s pretty impressive, right?”

~

Hermann went straight to bed once they got home.  He had turned an impressive shade of green when Newt had offered to make dinner, and all but fled the room afterward.  Newt didn’t know what to do.  He _hated_ not knowing what to do, because for the most part he prided himself on being a pretty resourceful guy when it came to coming up with solutions.  After agonizing over it for an hour and trying and failing to keep himself occupied, he did the only thing he could think of.

The bedroom was dark, and quiet, and Hermann was huddled under the covers.  He had to have heard him come in, but he didn’t say anything.  Newt could tell he was awake, though.  He laid his glasses on the end table and shrugged out of everything but his boxers before sliding into bed.

“It’s a bit early for you to be in bed, isn’t it?”

Newt wrapped an arm around Hermann’s waist and nuzzled his shoulder.  “A bit early to _sleep_ , maybe.  Not too early to cuddle my boyfriend.”

“I’m fine.”

“Dude, I don’t even need super-senses to know that’s bullshit.  Any time you say you’re fine, that usually means you’re the exact opposite of fine.”

Hermann huffed grouchily, but relaxed into the embrace.  They laid like that quietly for awhile, but Newt could tell Hermann was no closer to falling asleep fifteen minutes later than he had been when Newt had crawled into bed with him.  Not that he blamed him. 

Newt had went online after Hermann had first gone to bed and found a news article with some pretty detailed photos of the guy that had gotten killed.  It had been pretty bad – and he had a pretty high threshold when it came to blood and gore.  The first thought that had popped into his head hadn’t been _oh shit poor guy_ it had been _oh shit that could’ve been Hermann_.  Even if it was a wild animal and not some vampire with serious impulse control issues, that didn’t change the fact that _something_ was going around viciously tearing people’s throats out and earlier that day, that something had been in alarmingly close proximity to his boyfriend.

Hermann’s voice gently pulled him out of his train of thought.  “Newton.”

“Huh?”

“I’m alright.”

“I– I know that.”

“Although I may not be if you squeeze me much tighter.”

Newt felt his face heat up.  He was totally embarrassed with himself, because he had come in here to comfort Hermann, not the other way around.  He hadn’t even realized he’d been squeezing him that hard until he said something.  “Uh, sorry.”

“Be honest with me, Newton.  Do you think a vampire’s responsible for what happened?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe?  It was hard to tell from the pictures.”

“Pictures?  What pictures?”

“I, uh, might’ve looked it up online.  Someone must’ve gotten a few shots with their phone or something before they took the body away.”  He heard Hermann snort in disgust.  “I thought maybe I could figure it out if the pictures were good enough, but I think I’d have to see it up close to be sure.”

Hermann glanced over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes.  “Up close?”

“Yeah, like ‘go to the morgue and examine the body’ up close.”  Hermann paled, and Newt regretted even saying it.  Quickly, he added, “But y’know, I kind of doubt it’s a vampire.”

“Really.”

“Even the more, uh, morally challenged of us don’t usually do that much… shredding and tearing.”  Unless they were angry.  Or unless they were really, really hungry – like _starving_ hungry.  Newt didn’t mention either of those things, though, because he was trying to be reassuring.

Hermann didn’t looked convinced, but he let it drop.

“Was it anyone you knew?”

“Hmm?”

“The guy that died.”

“His name was Walter.”

Shit, he’d been on a first-name basis with the guy.  “Were you friends?”

“I think calling him a friend would be a bit of a stretch, but… he was more tolerable than some.”  Coming from Hermann, that was pretty high praise.

“I’m sorry, dude.”

“If it’s all the same to you,” Hermann replied softly, laying his head back on his pillow, “I really would just like to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, okay.”  Newt leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then settled back down beside him.

“You don’t have to stay.”

“I _want_ to stay.  I mean, unless you want me to go.  If you want to be alone, I can–“

Hermann laid a hand over his.  “Newton, shut up.  Please.”

“I can do that.”  He grinned.  “Well, I can _try_ to do that.”

Newt buried his face in the crook of Hermann’s neck and closed his eyes.  He couldn’t really sleep this long before dawn, but if he just laid there and listened to the sound of Hermann’s breathing and heartbeat, it almost felt like he could doze off with him.  It was relaxing, and close enough to the real thing that he could pretend for awhile that he was just a regular guy snoozing with his boyfriend.

Everything else, he could worry about later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohoho, the plot thickens. But hey, at least the chapter ended on a fluffy note, right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahaha, look! I'm not dead! Sorry for the longer than usual wait between updates, guys!

The sun was already beaming through the windows when Hermann woke up the next morning.  Once he had finally managed to fall asleep, he had slept far better than he would’ve expected, considering the events of the day before.  He had been rather exhausted, of course.  Between the discovery of the body, the police questioning everyone – students and teachers a like – and an emergency faculty meeting, he had spent several more hours at the college than he’d intended. 

At some point in his sleep, he must have rolled over onto Newton.  Newton, who was actually in bed in the morning.  Had he stayed there the whole night?  He didn’t like the thought of Newton wasting what was essentially his whole day lying in bed just for his sake, but he couldn’t deny that it was a pleasant surprise.  He didn’t wake up beside him very often.

He laid there for awhile with his head on Newton’s chest, listening to the infrequent beating of his heart.  It was tempting to just relax there and sleep for another hour or two.  Classes had been cancelled for the day, and he had a faculty meeting to attend, but it was still hours away.  He had the time to spare, which wasn’t something he’d had much of lately. 

Unfortunately, the persistent ache in his hip was making it difficult to get comfortable.  All the extra activity from the day before had taken its toll.  He sighed and sat up stiffly.  He leaned over and kissed Newton before reluctantly dragging himself out of bed.

~                                                                        

In the car, on the way the way to his faculty meeting, Hermann heard on the radio about the discovery of yet another body.  This time, the victim had been discovered indoors, in the bathroom at a fast food restaurant, and there seemed to be some confusion as to how a wild animal had found its way into a crowded restaurant and back out again without anyone noticing.  If Hermann hadn’t already been rather certain a vampire was responsible, he would have been now.

The meeting turned out to be a meeting only in the very loosest sense of the word.  Half of the people that were supposed to be there didn’t show up, and the other half spent most of the time going on about how awful it was Walter had been killed, what a great man he had been, and all the other assorted nonsense people prattled on about someone only once they were dead and gone.

The general consensus was that they couldn’t postpone classes indefinitely and that the “animal” that had killed Walter had probably moved on, and no one seemed especially worried about the second body that had been found, since it hadn’t actually happened on campus grounds.  He was left wondering why they’d bothered meeting in the first place.  He wasn’t sure what else he had expected – his colleagues were, as a whole, a lackadaisical lot.

Walter had been one of the few competent ones.

By the time the meeting was over and everyone scattered, Hermann was left feeling troubled and more than a little annoyed that he’d wasted two hours listening to a bunch of inane chatter that didn’t actually accomplish anything. 

He wasn’t exactly sure what to do, now.  He supposed he could go out to lunch, or go home, but that felt suspiciously like giving up when some _thing_ – a vampire, or something else, but almost certainly not an animal – was going around killing people.  The police had no idea that vampires existed, and Hermann did.  They thought an animal was to blame, and after a bit of fruitless investigating, they were probably going to shrug and let it go just like his colleagues had.  Knowing what he knew gave him a responsibility to put that knowledge to use, didn’t it?  He had to do something, he just wasn’t sure what.

The practical thing to do would be to wait for Newton, since he likely had a better idea of what to look for, but nightfall was still a good eight hours away and he refused to just sit around and do nothing until then.

~

Hermann sat at his desk in his office and stared at his computer screen.

All of the faculty had been accounted for the day before – _all_ day – which precluded them being vampires.  A student, then, perhaps?  Going through all the student records would have taken all day, so he narrowed down the search to Walter’s classes, specifically.  He recalled that Walter had on multiple occasions mentioned how surly some of his students were.  Maybe one of them had taken their bad attitude too far.  It was a bit of a stretch, but he didn’t have much else to go on.  If the killer _was_ a student with a grudge, it might even explain why Walter had been so badly mutilated.  He was hardly an expert, but he would have thought if the attack had been motivated by hunger there wouldn’t have been so much blood left behind.

Unfortunately, nothing really stood out in the student records, either.  There were no unexplained absences, and though there were a few… colorful notes about some of the more troublesome students, there was nothing that struck Hermann as serious enough to provoke someone to murder a man in cold blood.

He’d been on the computer for several hours and was still no closer to learning anything useful.  The only thing that had changed was that he had gone from being frustrated to being frustrated and hungry.

He glared at his computer for several more seconds before turning it off.

~

After he went out to lunch, Hermann headed back towards his office.  Perhaps he had missed something.  Maybe he would catch something he hadn’t noticed earlier.  It seemed unlikely, but he supposed it was worth another look.

He was walking down the hallway leading to his office when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.  If he hadn’t looked down at just the right moment, he might’ve missed it entirely, which he assumed is how everyone else in the building had missed it throughout the day.  That, or it hadn’t _been_ there earlier in the day, and that particular thought sent a chill down his spine.

It was blood or, some desperate part of his brain insisted, perhaps just something very similar-looking to blood.  Perhaps it was paint.  A small puddle of it on the floor just outside the supply closet.  Perhaps a member of the custodial staff had been painting earlier and didn’t realize they’d dripped some of it when they came back to return the paint.  …And accidentally left the door ajar.

Hermann took a deep breath and reached over, grasping the handle of the door and pushing it gently open, prepared for the worst.  What he found wasn’t much better.  The only bright side was that the body wasn’t as devastated as Walter’s body had been – it was, in fact, surprisingly bloodless.  At least, it appeared to be until he walked over to it and got a closer look. 

The man’s face was covered in blood, and after staring at it uncomprehendingly for several moments, Hermann realized he wasn’t looking at another _victim_.  He scrambled away so fast he staggered into one of the shelves and sent several cardboard boxes flying off of it, but he had bigger concerns, such as the sleeping vampire on the floor.  He fled the room once he’d regained his balance and shut the door tightly behind him.

Once he had composed himself, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Newton.  He didn’t answer, for obvious reasons, but hopefully he would check his voicemail once he woke up. 

“Newton,” he said calmly and carefully, after the beep prompted him.  “I believe I’ve found the–“  He caught himself about to say creature, then thought better of it, “–the person who killed Walter.  I found him in a supply closet, of all places.  He’s unconscious and contained, for the moment.  I’m not sure how contained he’ll be once he wakes up, however, so I would appreciate it if you would meet me here as soon as possible.”  He hesitated a few moments before finally hanging up.

He wasn’t sure what to do in the meantime.  He didn’t have the key to lock the closet, and even if he did, he wasn’t sure if the door was strong enough to stand up against a vampire.  He couldn’t very well leave the closet unattended, either, so he supposed he would just have to stand there and wait, and hope that nobody came along and got overly curious about why he was hovering conspicuously around a closet.

It was going to be a long two hours.

~

Three hours later, his phone rang.

“Newton?”

“Hermann?!  Are you okay?  Is he awake?  I mean, obviously, he must be awake by now.  Has he tried to get out?”

“I am, and he hasn’t.”  He had managed to find a spare key in one of the nearby offices and had locked the closet.  It had been oddly silent on the other side of the door, even though as Newton had said, surely the vampire had to be awake by now.  Why hadn’t he tried to get out?

“You don’t sound alright.”

Hermann sighed, “I’m alright, Newton.  Are you on your way?”

“I’m already here, dude, but this place is like a maze.  Which building are you in?”

“I’m–“

“Wait, never mind, found you.  Shit, who designed this place?”

“M. C. Escher,” Hermann replied dryly.

Newton snorted loudly in his ear.  In the distance – and over the phone – Hermann heard a door slam open, and a few moments later, Newt came skidding into view at the other end of the hallway. 

He looked visibly relieved when he saw Hermann.  “Uh, hi.  So how was your day?”

Hermann stared at him.  “Oh, lovely.  I attended a pointless two-hour meeting, ate something in the cafeteria that vaguely resembled food, and then I found a vampire in the supply closet.”

“So, you’re sure?  That he’s a vampire?”

“Well, I didn’t check him for _fangs_ , Newton, but yes, I’m reasonably sure.”

“Okay, give me the key.”

“You’re going _in there_?!”

Newton gave him a look.  “Well… yeah?  We can’t just leave him there.”

He felt a bit foolish for his reaction.  Of course Newton was going in there, of course they couldn’t just leave a vampire locked in a closet indefinitely.  He handed Newton the key.

“Hey,” Newton said brightly, patting him on the shoulder.  “Don’t worry, babe.  I won’t let him eat you.”

“I appreciate that.  Just… please be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” the other man replied with a wink that wasn’t at all reassuring.

Newton walked over to the door and unlocked it.  He paused before opening the door, a strange look flitting around across his face.

“What is it?” Hermann asked.

“I don’t hear anything in there – at all.”  He pushed open the door and peered inside, blinking in surprise.  “He’s… he’s dead.  Dude, what did you _do_?”

“I didn’t _do_ anything!” Hermann exclaimed indignantly.  “He was lying there, exactly like that, in that same position when I found him.  I– I assumed he was sleeping.”

“Well, uh, he’s not.”

“Are you certain he’s dead?”

The other man walked inside and paused as he knelt down beside the body.  “Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but _pretty_ sure – like ninety-nine percent sure.  Ish.”  He glanced at Hermann and let out a nervous laugh.  “I mean, I guess we’ll find out in a second, won’t we?”

Hermann stayed what he hoped was a safe distance away, but couldn’t quite fight down the anxiety he felt as Newton began to poke and prod at the body.  He half-expected the vampire to spring to life the second Newton touched him, but he didn’t. 

Newt leaned in closer, examining the dead vampire’s face.  “Wow.  Okay, _this_ is weird.”

“What is?”

“Well, _this_.  Look, dude.”

Hermann reluctantly moved a few steps closer to the body.  “What exactly am I supposed to be looking at, Newton?”

Newton had pinned one of the corpse’s eyes open with his fingers, and pointed with his free hand.  The eye was so bloodshot, there was hardly any white left visible.  It wasn’t normal, obviously – beyond that, however, Hermann wasn’t certain what it was he was supposed to be seeing.  Newt had a habit of assuming things that were clear to him were clear to everyone else, as well.

“Why does it look like that?” Hermann prodded.

“It’s a side effect – of starvation.  He starved to death.”

Hermann couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice.  “Newton, this man killed two people in as many days.  How could he possibly have starved?”

Newton glanced back down at the body.  “Now, that– that I don’t know.  I mean, he left a lot of blood in those bodies, but even if he didn’t drink all of it, it still should’ve been enough to keep him alive – not particularly healthy, maybe, but alive.  You’d pretty much have to go without any blood _at all_ for at least a couple weeks to actually die from blood starvation.  So this is definitely… weird.”  He looked thoughtful for a moment, before looking at Hermann again.  “Hey, does this place have a lab?”

“Well, yes, but it hasn’t seen use in years.  They cut funding for it some time ago, but… I suppose the equipment’s probably still there.  Why?”

“Well, I can only figure out so much by examining the guy here.”

Hermann gaped at him.  “You are not seriously suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”

“Dude, we need to get to the bottom of this.”

“Newton, how do you expect to move a body from a closet, all the way across campus, into a building that is likely locked, without anyone noticing?”

~

“This is a terrible idea.”

“If you’ve got a better one, I’m all ears.”

“Someone is going to _see_ us,” Hermann hissed.

Newt adjusted his grip on the dead vampire’s waist.  “Hermann, this place is practically deserted.  No one’s gonna see us.”

It was true that the recent rash of killings had made many people wary of lingering on-campus after dark, but even so…  “Practically deserted is not the same thing as _actually_ deserted, Newton.”

“Look, even if someone sees us, it’ll probably just look like I’m helping out a drunk buddy.  You can’t tell me the students around here never go on benders.”

Perhaps at a distance that might work, but Hermann had his doubts the illusion would hold up under close scrutiny.  He took a deep breath and glanced around furtively, certain that someone would appear at any moment and catch them.  They weren’t making much noise, but his heart was pounding so hard, he felt like everyone in a thirty-mile radius could hear it.

“Man, Hermann, you really need to calm down.”

“Forgive me if I’m a bit nervous about transporting a corpse across a college campus in the middle of the night.”

“Look, it’s gonna be okay.  We’re almost there, right?”

“Yes, and then we’ll be in a room full of laboratory equipment with a dead body, which you intend to poke and prod at with said laboratory equipment.  That’s so much better, of course.”

Newton rolled his eyes.  “I don’t think anyone’s going to come waltzing into an abandoned lab in an abandoned building the day after a brutal murder, but if you’re so worried about it, you can stand watch by the door or something.  If anyone comes along you can just scowl at them.  That’s sure to scare them off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended a bit more abruptly than some, but at some point I realized the next bit would work better in the next chapter than this one. 
> 
> So, the killer has been caught! Sort of! I guess that means the murderous rampage is over, right?


	6. Chapter 6

“Wow,” Newt exclaimed as they walked into the lab.  “This is… special.”

That was an understatement.  The place was a _mess_.  It broke his heart a little bit to see a lab that had been so badly neglected.  They’d only bothered covering half the stuff in the room with plastic sheeting to keep the dust off, and the rest was caked with so much dust it looked more like it’d been abandoned for a couple decades, not a couple years. 

Hopefully the equipment was still in relatively decent shape – if it had _ever_ been in decent shape.  He doubted he was going to be able to get as much done as he wanted to in these conditions, but it wasn’t like he could drag Dead Vampire Guy to the nearest lab with decent equipment.  People didn’t take kindly to strangers barging into their labs and asking to use their equipment, in his experience, and he figured they’d probably be even less thrilled about it if he dragged in a corpse along with him.

The corpse in question was getting a bit heavy.  Vampiric super-strength or not, he _had_ just toted a guy twice his size from one end of the campus to the other, and he was starting to feel it.  There was a table with some space, so Newt walked over and hefted the body up and onto it.  Then he went around the room and tried to get a feel for what he had to work with.

“This reminds me of my old lab.”

Hermann looked at him curiously.  “The one you used when you worked for Hannibal Chau?”

“Uh, no, the one before that.  How sad is it that the stuff in this place is like thirty years old?  Did this place _ever_ have funding, or did they just grab a bunch of old shit and toss it in here?”

He stopped in front a microscope that, on closer inspection, was the exact same model he used to use on a daily basis – back when he could actually work during the day.  He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, because on the one hand it was _his microscope_ , but on the other hand it was practically a relic, which kind of made him a bit of a relic, too.

“Do you miss it?” Hermann asked softly.

He hadn’t realized he’d reached out and was touching the thing until Hermann’s voice jostled him out of his thoughts. 

“Sometimes, I guess.  I mean, it’s not like I had much of a choice.  Vampirism’s kind of a career-killer when your career requires you to be available during the day, y’know?”  He swallowed hard, feeling like an idiot.  He was getting emotional over a _microscope_.  He grinned and shook his head.  “Uh, never mind.  It’s probably just as well, y’know?  How could I ever deprive everyone of the best frappuccinos in town?”

Hermann sighed.  “Must you _always_ do that?”

“Do what?”

“Turn everything into a joke.”

His grin faded and he went back to looking at the microscope, because he couldn’t really handle the way Hermann was looking at him.  “What should I do instead?  Sit and cry about it for a couple hundred years?”

“Newton–“

“Look, could you give me some space?”  He could feel Hermann staring at him, and it was making his shoulders itch.  “It’s going to be hard to get anything done with you hovering there.”

Hermann turned around and walked across the room, letting out a frustrated sigh that Newt was pretty sure he hadn’t meant for him to hear, but he did.  He almost wanted to apologize, but if he did, Hermann would want to _talk_ about it some more, and he wasn’t really sure that he could deal with that, and now was a really bad time to have a breakdown.

“Do we have any idea who that guy is?”

He heard a soft rustling noise, then Hermann said, “He has a student ID in his wallet.  Bernard Shaw.”  He sighed.  “I spent hours earlier going through the student records and no one stood out.”

“Well, I don’t think people come with ‘ravenous creature of the night’ stamped on their foreheads.”

“I realize that,” Hermann replied, tone tight and annoyed.  “However, I would assume someone with his… condition… would have exhibited signs of it beforehand.  There weren’t any notes of unusual behavior or unexpected absences.  I’ll see if I can find him in the school’s database.”

Newt snorted.  “Hopefully the computers in here are connected to the network.”

“Actually, I was going to go to my office.”

He looked up from the microscope and glanced over his shoulder.  “…Oh.”

To call the expression on Hermann’s face chilly would have been the understatement of the century, and it made Newt feel like he’d been stabbed in the heart… again.  He felt like an asshole.  He _was_ an asshole.  He was hungry, and irritable, and _upset_ , and none of those things were Hermann’s fault, but he’d taken it out on him anyway.  He wanted to apologize, but he wasn’t really sure what to say, so instead he just sort of stared at Hermann awkwardly until the silence became unbearable.

“Besides,” Hermann said with a shrug, “I’m sure you’ll get more done without my ‘hovering.’” 

“Hermann–“

“Call me if you discover anything.”

_Don’t go_ , he wanted to say.  “Yeah, okay,” he said instead.

He watched Hermann leave the lab, then stood there for another few minutes wondering if he should go after him.  He probably should have.  He didn’t.

He turned toward the corpse of the late Bernard Shaw.  “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, buddy.”

~

The blood work was inconclusive, which was a fancy way of saying Newt had no idea what the hell was going on with it.  The markers for vampirism were there, but they were… off – similar enough to be recognizable, but different enough that Newt wasn’t sure what to make of it.  It was like the guy was a vampire, but also _wasn’t_ a vampire, and that didn’t make any sense.  Some of the characteristics were the same, and others were way, way off-base.  It was almost as though the guy was some weird mutant off-shoot, but that didn’t _happen_.  There was variation, sure, but nothing on this scale, ever.  None that he’d ever seen, anyway.

He still wasn’t sure how the guy had starved to death.  If he had to guess, he’d say there was something weird going on with his metabolism, but he’d need to run a bunch of other tests to be sure, and those would take time.  He definitely wasn’t going to be able to get it done in one night – or ever, depending on how reliable the rest of the equipment in this glorified junk heap was. 

He might have been able to learn more if he did an autopsy on the guy but a) it probably wasn’t a great idea to start cutting people open on a college campus, even if the building was abandoned; and b) the guy had been dead for long enough that his organs had probably deteriorated too much already to get anything useful out of them.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, there was also c) the idea of cutting a _person_ open and digging around in there drudged up some pretty terrible memories.

He sighed and fished his cell phone out of his pocket.  Then he set it on the table and stared at it for awhile, trying to decide whether he should call Hermann or not.  On the one hand, he hadn’t really found out a whole lot, but on the other hand, he should probably keep Hermann updated anyway – it had been a couple hours, after all. 

He grabbed the phone and hit the speed dial.

“Hello?”

“Hey.  Find out anything useful about the guy?”

“I’m not sure that I’d categorize it as ‘useful,’ but I did find him in the student database.”

“And?”

“ _And_ nothing.”

“What do you mean ‘nothing?’”

“He was one of Walter’s students.  I scrolled past him earlier this evening and never thought twice about it, because there’s _nothing_ here.  Nothing to indicate his… situation, at all.  No absences, and he was in class yesterday – and he was apparently a model student right up until he decided to tear Walter’s throat out.”

“He might not have realized what was happening.  When you’re not given a crash course in vampirism, things can be kinda confusing.  One minute you’re feeling okay and then suddenly everyone starts looking like Happy Meals.  He probably didn’t even mean to do it.”

“Newton, you don’t understand, he was in class yesterday.  Emphasis on the ‘ _day_.’”

That was impossible.  There was no way the dude lying on the table could have been conscious during the day.  “That’s–“

“Yes, I know.”  There was a long pause.  “If his condition was a recent occurrence…”

“He still wouldn’t have been able to be up and moving during the day, there’s no way, man.  I don’t care how recent it was, there’s no way he could’ve been awake when the sun was up.”

“And yet he was.”

He plopped down into a chair with a sigh and coughed as a cloud of dust flew into the air.

“Newton?”

“I’m fine.  This place is just… really, really dusty, geez.”

“Could you please focus on the task at hand?”

“I _am_ focused on the task at hand, dude, believe me.  If I were any more focused I’d be shooting lasers out of my eyes.”

On the other end of the line, Hermann fell silent. 

Newt closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair.  When he opened them again, he stared up at the ceiling, which was in as much of a sorry state as the rest of the room – it looked like it had sprung a leak in a few spots during the last rainy season and no one had ever bothered fixing it.  “Okay, so, for the sake of argument, let’s say the guy _was_ up and moving yesterday.  Vampire biology is really specifically tailored towards the whole nocturnal thing.  If he was somehow awake the whole time, he _might_ have had different energy requirements.”

“That sounds like a rather big ‘might.’”

“I don’t know, dude.  I’ll have to run more tests.  Even then, I’m not sure how much more I’m gonna be able to get out of this guy.  Vampire bodies deteriorate pretty fast.”  He chewed on his lip, then added, “You should probably go home.”

“Newton–“

“Look, dude, it’s just– if I wait until tomorrow night, there’s not going to be a whole lot left to examine.  It’s better if I hang out here for as long as I can and figure out whatever I can figure out _now_ , y’know?  It’ll probably take all night, and there’s no reason for you to hang around here the whole time.  Go home.  Get some rest.  You’ve had a crazy couple of days.”

“…Fine.”

“Hey, wait,” Newt said hurriedly.  “Love you.”

Hermann sighed.  “I love you, too.  Stay safe, will you?  Don’t blow anything up in there, and be careful on your way home.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Hermann hung up. 

Newt stared at the ceiling for awhile longer before getting back to work.

~

Hermann was already in bed when Newt got home, and asleep by the sound of it.  On the one hand, Newt was relieved that he was _able_ to sleep, because it had been a pretty hectic couple of days.  On the other hand, he had kind of hoped maybe he’d still be up and he’d get a chance to kiss him and apologize for being a grumpy jerk earlier.  On the _other_ other hand, he had a feeling he’d probably just screw things up even worse than he already had if he tried to talk to him, so maybe it was for the best.

Being hungry probably wasn’t doing his mood any favors.  He normally fed when he woke up, but when he’d gotten Hermann’s message a couple minutes after sundown, food had been the last thing on his mind.  It was a miracle he’d remembered to put pants on before he hit the elevator.

He hadn’t found out much more from the rest of the tests than he had with the first one.  He _had_ found out that, for whatever reason, the guy hadn’t metabolized any of the blood he drank, which explained how he probably _would_ have eventually starved to death, but still not why it had happened so fast.  Then again, if the guy could somehow walk around during the day, maybe he hadn’t been turned in the past day or two – hell it could’ve been more along the lines of a _week_ or two, which might explain a lot.

It still didn’t explain where the hell a mutant strain of vampirism had come from, but if someone out there was turning people into _that_ instead of a normal, functional vampire and then just letting them run loose…  He hoped that wasn’t the case.  He hoped it had just been a freak accident and a weird hiccup in the vampirization process, and that that the whole mess was over with. 

Wishful thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit I glossed over some of the science-y bits. Mainly because I am... not a very science-y person. Just trust that plenty of science went on. Vampire bodies decay pretty fast, though, so examining a dead one only yields so much information.
> 
> I promise things will start making sense soon on the mutant vampire front. XD


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, you guys, I am really, really sorry this update is so late. I had a hectic couple of weeks, but updates should happen a little more frequently from now on. :x

Newton was asleep on the couch – again – when Hermann found him in the morning, still fully dressed except for his shoes, with the blanket pooled loosely around his waist and clutching one of the couch’s decorative pillows loosely against his chest. It looked as though he’d made a conscious decision to sleep there, rather than simply losing track of the time like he usually did.

Hermann frowned and went to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast. Once he had eaten, he went back to the living room and sat on the edge of the couch with a sigh.

Newton rarely brought up anything about his past, and getting him to ever talk about it was often like pulling teeth. In retrospect, he probably should have realized it was going to be a sore spot, but curiosity had gotten the better of him, and now Newton was sleeping on the couch _deliberately_ , which he never did – often accidentally, yes, but never deliberately.

Hermann wasn’t worried that he had angered him so much as he was worried that he had hurt him, however unintentionally. Perhaps once all this was resolved they would have time to talk about things under less stressful circumstances.

Of course resolving anything would require finding out what was going on in the first place.

~

After classes were over for the day, Hermann decided to look into Bernard Shaw a bit more closely. Someone had _done_ that to the poor boy, and as far as Hermann was concerned that made whoever had done it responsible not only for Shaw’s death, but Walter’s as well.There had to be _some_ clue, somewhere. School records only provided so much, so perhaps digging a little deeper would yield more information. Earlier that day, he had written down his address. Maybe he could find out more if he retraced Mr. Shaw’s steps and spoke to people who knew him. That was his hope, at least.

Bernard lived – _had_ lived – in a small house not far from the college campus with a couple fellow students, according to the school’s records. Hermann hadn’t been entirely certain what he was going to say to the poor man’s roommates once he arrived, but it turned out to be moot – no one was home.

On the one hand, this meant he didn’t have to worry about trying to explain why he was inquiring after a student who – as far as anyone knew – had gone missing with a killer on the loose. On the other hand, it also meant he’d hit a dead-end. He was about to walk away from the front door and head back to his car when a thought occurred to him. It was a long-shot, and an illegal one at that, but…

He nudged aside the welcome mat – a tacky looking thing that said WELCOME! in a bright eye-searing yellow over a green and pink background, with a deranged smiley face underneath the lettering – with his cane, and found what he was looking for. On some level, he hadn’t expected to find anything. After all, who actually left a key to the entrance of their home in such an obvious and easily accessed place? Apparently, college students.

Of course, he had to stop and ask himself if he was really going to go through with what he was considering.

“Can I help you?”

Hermann nearly jumped out of his skin and glanced over his shoulder at the young man staring at him curiously. He could only hope that it wasn’t too obvious that he’d been considering breaking into the house. He turned around and tried his best to look as though he hadn’t been about to commit a felony.

“Er, yes. I’m from the Board of Education.” He didn’t make a habit of blatantly lying to people, but he put on his best stern expression and attempted to look like he was actually there in an official capacity. “Are you Bernard Shaw’s roommate?”

The young man balked. “Uh, yeah. Is he in some kind of trouble?”

Hermann hesitated. To say Bernard was in trouble would have been an understatement. Or, he supposed, an overstatement, considering the poor boy was dead and not particularly troubled by anything anymore.

He realized Bernard’s roommate was still waiting for a response. “He’s… missed several classes.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

“Oh.”

They stood there awkwardly for a moment, the young man shifting nervously from foot to foot and Hermann quietly trying to decide how best to gain the information he was looking for without seeming too suspicious. After all, a man appearing on the doorstep of a missing person’s home asking questions might raise a few alarms.

“Well,” Bernard’s roommate replied, still looking a bit cowed, “I haven’t seen Bernard in a few days. I’m not sure where he is.”

Hermann wasn’t even sure what Newton had done with the body when he had finished examining it. Had he left it in the lab? Had he… disposed of it? Was anyone ever going to find him, or were his family and loved ones going to be left to wonder where Bernard had disappeared to? As horrible as Walter’s death had been, at least there’d been something of him left behind for his loved ones to mourn.

Bringing his mind back to the matter at hand, he asked, “Is there a reason you thought he might be in trouble?”

“Besides the whole ‘disappearing for days without a word’ thing? Yeah, he’d been acting kind of distant and weird lately. I think school was starting to stress him out.”

“That’s odd. From what I understood he was a model student.”

“You can be a good student and still be stressed out, man. He was worried he’d taken on more classes than he’d be able to handle and that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his grades up in all of them. He thought he might lose his financial aid.”

“I see. Was there anything… else… going on?”

“Like what?”

“Anything that might strike you as unusual? Anything at all would be helpful, Mr…?”

“Scott.”

“Is that your first name or last name?”

“First?” Scott offered, not sounding very sure of himself.

Hermann suppressed a sigh.

“Oh hey, he’d been going to a club a lot lately.”

Finally, progress. “What kind of club?”

“A night club. I was surprised, because he’s not usually much of a party guy, but I overheard him talking about it a couple times to someone on the phone. I think… I dunno, I figured he might be buying drugs there or something.”

“I see. I don’t suppose you’d happen to know where this night club is, would you?”

~

The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon as Hermann got home. Newton was still asleep, though he was breathing noticeably, so Hermann knew he was close to waking. He gently nudged Newton’s legs to make room to sit, which earned him a vaguely disgruntled noise as the other man began to stir.

Without opening his eyes, Newt muttered softly, “G’morning.”

“Good evening,” Hermann corrected, out of habit.

Newton rubbed his eyes and peered at him groggily. “How long have you been sitting there?”

“Not long.”

“How was work?”

“Half of my students didn’t show up.”

“Maybe they got eaten.”

Hermann gave him a pointed look.

~

Newt swished the blood around in his glass and scrutinized it like he wasn’t one hundred percent certain of its freshness. “I was thinking about it last night, and something about these killings doesn’t add up.”

Hermann took the leftover pasta out of the microwave and sat at the kitchen table across from him with a sigh. “What is it?”

“The second one happened a ways away from the college, right?”

“That’s right. At a fast food restaurant.”

“Doesn’t it seem weird to you that he attacked someone on campus, wandered farther out to kill someone at an Arby’s or something, then came all the way back to the scene of the first murder to pass out and die in a closet?”

Hermann’s mouth suddenly felt very dry. “You think there’s more than one.”

“I don’t know. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I mean… What makes more sense? That this Bernard guy went way, _way_ out of his way to come back to school to die, or that there’s another person out there snacking on people?”

“Even if there was, would the person who killed the other man still be alive? You said it yourself that Bernard could never have survived in such a state for long. Wouldn’t the other killer – if there was one – likely be dead already as well?”

“Maybe? Maybe not. I mean, that logic kind of relies on the assumption that the mutation or – or _whatever_ it is affects everyone the same way. Even if it does, there could be more out there, who knows? Whoever’s responsible for all this has already kinda proven that they don’t care too much about the mess they leave behind or they would’ve stepped in by now.”

“Then perhaps we’re going about this wrong.”

Newton raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” He sniffed at his breakfast and took a dubious sip. He made a disgusted face and cringed. “Ugh. I’m not sure _what_ this came from, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a pig.”

“We’ve been trying to find the one responsible for Bernard’s condition,” Hermann continued, “but perhaps we should be looking for whoever else this person has… changed. Perhaps there’s a connection between them.”

Newt stood up and took his glass over to the sink. “Yeah, but even if there is, how do we figure out what it is, dude? I mean, if we already knew who it was, yeah, we could figure out a pattern or something maybe, but I mean… whoever’s doing this and whoever else that might have done it to, they could be anyone. We don’t know anything about the guy that wasn’t in his school records, which isn’t exactly a whole lot to go on.”

“Nothing in his records, no,” Hermann replied, “but I spoke to his roommate earlier today. Apparently his behavior recently _had_ been a bit odd, and he was spending a lot of time at a club on the edge of town. He mentioned he’d planned on going there again tonight.”

“Guess that’s not going to work out so well for him,” the other man muttered as he poured the not-pig's blood down the drain.

“Perhaps not, but–“ Hermann reached into his pocket and produced a piece of paper, “–it may work out well for us. I have the address.”

Newton glanced over his shoulder and broke out into a sudden, familiar grin that had been conspicuously absent the past couple days, and it made Hermann’s heart flop around a bit despite the seriousness of the conversation. “Dude, you’re a lifesaver. I mean, maybe even _literally_ if we can figure out what’s going on before someone else gets hurt.”

“That was the hope, yes,” Hermann replied with a smile.

“Okay, so it’s still early-ish. If we head out now, we should be able to get there before the rush. Should make it a little easier to spot anyone shady, right?”

~

“Early-ish” turned out to still not be early enough. By the time they reached the nightclub, the place was practically a zoo. Blessedly, the line to get in wasn’t particularly long, but once they got inside Hermann had to resist the urge to immediately turn around and head back outside.

The place was packed tightly with people bumping shoulders and dancing around and the whole experience was what Hermann imagined sardines would experience when jammed into a sardine can if they hadn’t already been dead beforehand. Also the multicolored lights were giving him a headache.

“How does anyone find _anything_ in a place like this?” Hermann shouted in Newton’s ear.

Newt side-eyed him. “You know you don’t have to shout, right?”

“Er, sorry.”

“Anyway, do we have any idea why Bernie was coming here?”

“I’m a little disturbed that you’ve nicknamed a dead man.”

“Yeah, okay, do we have any idea why _Bernard_ was coming here?”

“His roommate suspected he might be buying drugs.”

Newt snorted loudly. “Okay, it’s been a long, _long_ time since I’ve taken recreational drugs, but last time I checked there weren’t any that turn you into a blood-sucking mutant, dude.”

“Perhaps he met the person who transformed him here.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, too.”

Hermann glanced around, uncertain of what to look for. “Would you be able to recognize another vampire?”

“Yeah. I mean, there’s a _lot_ of people in here, but… I think so.” He shrugged. “It’s kinda like trying to find someone in a sea of Happy Meals.”

He gave Newton a concerned look.

Newt laughed. “Dude, it was a joke. I’m joking. I work in a coffee shop full of people all day. I can handle this.”

Hermann wasn’t so sure. The coffee shop, even on a busy day, wasn’t nearly as frenzied as the atmosphere of this place was at the moment. _He_ could barely stand it, so he couldn’t imagine how someone with enhanced senses could tolerate it.

“I’m gonna head towards the bar and see if I can maybe get some info out of the bartender,” Newton said, standing on the tips of his toes to speak in his ear.

“Alright. I’ll see if I can spot anyone suspicious in the meantime.”

“Just be careful, okay? Don’t go chasing after anyone on your own.”

Hermann glanced at him. “Says the man that charges headlong into trouble on his own at every available opportunity.”

“Dude, I’m serious.” He was, apparently, which was enough to give Hermann pause.

“If I find something – or someone – I’ll let you know.”

“You promise?”

Hermann let an exasperated sigh. “ _Yes_ , I promise. Can we please get back to the task at hand, or did you want to stand in the middle of the dance floor all night?”

“So I guess asking you to dance is totally out of the question, right?”

“Newton–“

“I’m going! I’m going!” Newton hurriedly shouldered his way through the crowd and disappeared from view.

Meanwhile, Hermann made his way to a higher area of the club. Progress up the stairs was slow, less because of his leg and more because people kept _jostling_ him. One of them was a man so tall he dwarfed everyone in the immediate vicinity, Hermann included – though unlike everyone else he actually muttered an apology as he passed by. Once Hermann had reached the top he found a relatively unpopulated area of the platform that had a good view of the rest of the room. He scanned the area, hoping it’d be easier to spot anything unusual from a higher vantage point, but it wasn’t. There were simply too many people. That, or there simply wasn’t anyone _to_ find.

He sighed and glanced in the direction of the bar. At a distance it was a bit hard to tell for certain, but he thought he could see the top of Newt’s head – messy hair waving around animatedly as he had what appeared to be a heated discussion with the bartender. At the far end of the bar, an upset young woman was trying to brush off the advances of a young man with little success and went storming away towards a nearby exit with her companion hot on her heels.

That was… distressing. It certainly qualified as suspicious.

Hermann made his way back down the stairs while internally debating whether he should go get Newton. Last he had seen, the other man had still been talking – or arguing – with the bartender, and once Newton got going it could be difficult to catch his attention, and in the meantime whatever was going on with the pair he had seen was likely to continue to unfold uninterrupted. Vampire-related or not, Hermann got the impression it was a time sensitive situation.

He made his way toward the exit and shoved his way out the door hurriedly. It slammed shut loudly behind him and he found himself in a less than welcoming alley illuminated only by a nearby street light.

Before he had time to wonder where the pair had disappeared to, Hermann heard a wet, squelching sound that made him feel vaguely nauseous. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and leave, but instead he walked towards the source of the noise, which seemed to be coming from the other side of a nearby dumpster. He knew, on some gut level, that it couldn’t be anything good, but he still wasn’t entirely prepared for what he found.

He wasn’t sure what either of the two had originally intended to do behind the dumpster, but he was reasonably certain this wasn’t it. The young woman didn’t seem to be biting the man’s neck so much as chewing on it, which was the source of the noise. If she noticed that she now had an audience, she didn’t seem to care.

“Unhand that man right this instant,” Hermann exclaimed in the best authoritative tone he could muster while standing in a back alley watching a vampire chew her way through someone’s neck.

She tore her face away from the man’s throat and looked over her shoulder. Bright red blood was pouring down her face, fangs glinting in the yellow light of the nearby lamppost. God, her fangs – they were long, longer than the admittedly few others he’d seen, and her other teeth looked sharp and pointed as well, certainly that wasn’t _normal_ even by vampire standards. She let go of her prey – who hit the ground with a heavy thud – and turned around to face him.

Well, that had gotten her attention.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, this turned out to be a longer than usual chapter.

“Okay, so what will a twenty-dollar bill buy me?”

“A martini.”

Newt glared at the bartender. The bartender glared back.

Finally, the bartender snorted. “Buddy, if you’re trying to intimidate me, it’s not going to work. You’re, like, what? Five feet tall?”

 _Don’t reach across the bar and strangle him, don’t reach across the bar and strangle him…_ He fished a fifty-dollar bill out of his wallet and waved it at the guy. “How about this, huh?”

The bartender stared at him thoughtfully for a long moment before snatching the bill from his hand.

“ _Thank_ you. Now–“

The bartender turned around and walked away.

“Dude, _seriously_?!” Newt exclaimed indignantly.

The guy ignored him and went over to the far end of the bar. As he bent over to grab a bottle under the counter, he glanced at Newt and Newt heard him mutter under his breath, “Asshole.”

Newt narrowed his eyes. If strangling the guy was a bad idea, biting him probably wasn’t a good one, either. So much for getting information. Who knew he’d run into the one bartender in town who cared about people’s privacy? Maybe Hermann had found something.

Where _was_ Hermann, anyway? Newt had been haggling for information fruitlessly with that bartending jerk for awhile, and he would have thought he’d have turned up by now. In fact, now that he was looking and listening for him, he couldn’t spot Hermann anywhere. He couldn’t _hear_ him anywhere, either. He’d thought he’d be able to keep better track of him, but there were so many people – too many smells and voices and heartbeats, and that wasn’t even counting the _music_.

He sighed and leaned back against the bar. If there was another vampire out in the crowd somewhere, they were doing a damn good job of hiding. That, or he was just that bad at spotting them. Maybe if he took a minute or two and tried to focus, he could–

_Wait a minute._

Before his brain could catch up with all the signals his various senses were sending him, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. It was Aleksis Kaidonovsky. He’d recognize that walking tank anywhere. Before he could worry about whether or not Aleksis knew he was there, the other vampire looked straight at him. The guy had an amazing poker face, because Newt couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Before he could think to march over and ask what the hell he was doing there, he heard a loud noise.

Well, loud, but not loud – distant, but audible. The kind of sound he knew he probably wouldn’t have heard at all if he’d been human. It sounded like it had come from somewhere outside.

There was an exit not too far from the bar. Hermann wouldn’t have gone out there without giving him a heads up first.

Right?

~

The scent of blood hit him before he even opened the door. His heart was pounding so hard he had to strain to hear anything else over the sound of it. For a few terrifying seconds, he thought maybe there wasn’t anything else _to_ hear – just dead silence and the smell of what might or might not be his boyfriend’s blood. He took a couple deep breaths to try to calm himself down and felt a flood of relief when he was finally able to pinpoint the beat of a familiar heart.

“Hermann?!”

Hermann’s voice came, shaky and strained, from further into the alley. “Newton! I’m over–“ Someone, or something, snarled and Hermann made a distressed noise.

Newt barely even remembered moving, he was just near the door one second and at Hermann’s side the next. In any other situation he’d be impressed with himself for moving so fast, but Hermann was on the ground and someone was _on top_ of him, fangs bared and alarmingly close to tearing into Hermann’s throat.

“Get off of him!”

The other vampire didn’t even glance in his direction, so he did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forcibly flung her as far away from Hermann as possible – which turned out to be pretty far.

He spun around. “Are you hurt? She didn’t bite you, did she?” There was so much blood _everywhere_ , and none of it smelled like Hermann’s, but…

“No, she didn’t, I’m–“

Something smashed into Newt from behind, hard, and he missed the rest of whatever Hermann had been saying. He smacked his head when he hit the ground and was pretty sure he felt his skull crack, but that would heal. He was a lot more worried about getting a do-it-yourself tracheotomy from the vampire currently clinging to his back.

Tossing her off wouldn’t have been too hard, but he was afraid if he did that she’d decide he wasn’t worth the trouble and go after Hermann again.

There was a pipe on the ground a couple feet away from the corpse – oh hey, there was a corpse, that explained the blood – on the ground. Seemed like a bad place for an errant piece of plumbing – not to mention a safety hazard – but Newt wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He tried reaching for it, but it wasn’t close enough. He tried to inch across the ground on his elbows, but it was slow going with someone snarling on top of him.

He was almost close enough to grab it when she bit him.

Vampire bites hurt. Under the right circumstances, they didn’t have to hurt _bad_ , but circumstances didn’t get much worse than face down on the ground in a dark alley. She didn’t screw around, either – she went straight for the throat and sank her teeth in. He tried – key word being tried – not to panic, and made a blind grab for the pipe, elbowing the other vampire in an attempt to jostle her loose. She bit down harder and _gnawed_ on him like he was a piece of beef jerky.

He bit back a scream and tried to grab the pipe again. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he was pretty sure she was going to tear open something really important if she hadn’t already and he’d kind of had enough of bleeding out in back alleys for one lifetime. He elbowed her again, harder, this time he felt her fangs pull away from his neck. He twisted around, stretched, and grabbed the pipe…

…And she went limp before he even swung it. It caught him off-guard and he didn’t even realize he’d dropped the pipe until he heard it hit the ground. He suddenly had a vampire passed out on top of him and it was so abrupt that all he could do for a solid minute was lay there on the ground panting and shaking, vaguely aware of the tickly itch of his torn neck trying to pull itself back together.

He drew in a shaky breath and said, “Shit.”

“Newton?!”

“I’m alright!” he called out.

He carefully pushed the other vampire off of him. He didn’t get up right away, he just laid there breathing in and out and focused on the sensation of the bite wound healing itself. _See? Not going to bleed to death. …Probably._

He heard Hermann approach before he saw him. The other man paled and his eyes widened.

Newt pushed himself up on his elbows with a groan. “Dude, don’t worry. It looks worse than it is.”

“It looks terrible.”

“Yeah, well, it… doesn’t feel great, either, but it’s healing. I’m good.”

“Is– is she dead?”

Her heartbeat was weak, but it was still there. “No. She just passed out.”

“Should we take her to a hospital?”

Newt staggered to his feet and gave him a look. “Yeah, I’m sure that’d go over _really_ well. What do you think they’re gonna do for her at a hospital? Besides, she might, y’know, wake up and try to kill everyone. That would kinda be a problem.”

“We have to _do_ something, Newton.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Give me your car keys. I’m gonna take her to the lab.”

Hermann gaped at him. “What?”

“Dude, I don’t have time to argue about this, just give me the keys!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Hermann, now’s really not the time for you to–“

“This is not about the _car_ ,” Hermann hissed. “You cannot seriously be suggesting that I stay here while you drive across town alone with a starving vampire.”

“Okay, first of all? I’m not suggesting you stay _here_ , I’m suggesting you call Tendo and have him come pick you up and take you home. Second, I have no idea how long she’s going to be unconscious, dude, and when she wakes up she’s probably going to lunge for anything with a heartbeat. At least I can take care of myself if that thing happens to be me.”

“And what are we supposed to do about the man she killed?”

In all the chaos and the wresting around, Newt had almost forgotten there was a dead guy. “Leave him.”

Hermann stared at him incredulously.

“Hermann, what do you think it’s going to look like if you’re caught hanging out around a dead body? It’s not like you can tell people he got snacked on by a vampire. They’ll think _you_ had something to do with it. Look, just… call Tendo, wait here for him, and when he gets here have him drive you home and just– just try not to worry about it.”

Hermann’s stare was starting to look suspiciously like a glare, but he dug his car keys out of his pocket and thrust them at him.

~

It was hard getting someone into a car when that person was unconscious. Hermann had offered to help, and Newt had said no. It had pissed the other man off, but he’d rather he be pissed off and in one piece than not pissed off and not in one piece. He had no idea when the woman was going to wake up – it could be hours, it could be minutes. Hell, it could be _seconds_. He just hoped she wouldn’t wake while he was driving.

Which – fifteen minutes later and about halfway to the college campus – is exactly what she did.

Newt tensed and tried to keep an eye on the road while also keeping an eye on the vampire stirring beside him. He had to get to the lab, and fast. If she attacked him while he was driving, things were probably going to get ugly.

“W-who are you?”

Newt narrowly avoided crashing into the back of another car as he jerked his head around. “Uh. Newt.” He hadn’t expected her to be _coherent_ after what had happened back at the club. “What’s your name?”

She blinked at him like she was having a hard time understanding what he was saying.

“Look, just hang in there. I’ve got a lab, and if I can get you there, I can help you, okay?”

“W-what happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I– I was at the club with– with a friend and– I don’t– I don’t remember anything after that.”

“It’s okay. You’re sick, but it’s gonna be okay.”

“Is Henry okay? He’s– he’s not sick too, is he?”

Newt kept his eyes on the road. His grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Your friend? Nah, he’s fine.”

“G-good.”

They were almost to the college campus. Newt wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to do when they _got_ there. He still wasn’t sure what he was dealing with, but he also hadn’t had a _living_ victim of this crap to work with. If he worked fast, maybe he could figure out something new and find some way to slow down whatever was happening – and if he could find out how to do _that_ maybe he could find out a way to stop it from getting worse.

He pulled into the parking lot and didn’t even think about how quiet it had gotten in the car until he turned and saw the other vampire staring glassy-eyed in his general direction, slumped against the seat.

Oh. Oh _shit_. “H-hey, no, no. Wait.”

He fumbled to quickly unbuckle his seat belt before realizing he’d never put it on in the first place. Then he leaned over and checked the woman’s pulse, even though he knew better.

He sat back in his seat and stared at the steering wheel numbly.

Well, crap.

~

For the past hour and a half Newt had been sitting in the same chair and staring at the same discolored bit of ceiling as he had the last time he’d been in the lab, and it was giving him a weird sense of déjà vu – like the whole night was one big re-run.

The door opened and Tendo walked in.

Newt kept staring up at the ceiling. “Did you drive Hermann home?”

“Yeah, I did. He’s not too happy with you, though.”

He snorted. “Yeah, well. The alternative was him possibly getting munched on, so he can just deal with it.”

“How’d things go over here?”

Newt gestured vaguely at the table behind him and squinted at what looked like a mold colony growing in the far corner of the ceiling. “Not great.”

“Shit,” Tendo muttered, and Newt didn’t have to look over his shoulder, he heard him walk over to where he had put the body.

“Y-yeah.”

“We need to stop whoever’s doing this,” Tendo said grimly.

Newt sighed and swiveled around in the chair. “Well, that’s easier said than done, dude. At first I thought maybe– maybe we were dealing with someone with control issues, y’know? Someone new, maybe, that was losing control and attacking people, but that’s not what’s happening. Tonight proves it, because these two had something in common – they were both at that club, at some point. There’s a pattern, that means… that means this isn’t random, someone’s _hunting_ , and that means they know exactly what they’re doing and they probably know how to cover their tracks. Finding them’s going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Unless you’ve ran into them already.”

Newt blinked at him.

The other man shrugged. “Hermann told me the Kaidonovskys were in town.”

“You know them?”

“I know _of_ them.”

“Do they– would they have done something like this?”

“I don’t know. They’ve been around long enough that plenty of people have heard of them or bumped into them from time to time, but they’re pretty private. Not many people know much about them. Seems like a weird coincidence that they strolled into town around the same time as this started happening, though.”

“Yeah, and an even weirder coincidence that I bumped into one of them at the club tonight.”

“Which one?”

“Aleksis, I think. The dude. The really tall, vaguely menacing dude.”

“Did he say anything to you?”

“No, he kept his distance. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him or anything, before–“

“Before you left me standing in an alley with a corpse in the middle of the night?” Hermann suggested from the doorway, looking about ten times more disgruntled than he had when Newt had left him.

“You said you took him home,” Newt accused, narrowing his eyes at Tendo.

Tendo held up his hands in defense. “I never said he _stayed_ there.”

~

“You are unbelievable,” Hermann grumbled as they both stepped into the elevator leading up to their loft.

“Yeah, you’ve said that before.”

“In this particular instance, I don’t mean it as a compliment. You left me in an alley with a _corpse_.”

“Tendo came and got you–“

“Newton, that is not the _point._ ”

“What _is_ the point?”

Hermann pushed the “up” button on the elevator with a little more force than was probably necessary, then spun around to glare at him. “What are we doing?”

The question caught Newt off-guard. “What?”

“We have been together for nearly eight months. We are supposed to be in this _together_. Yet even after all this time you continue to treat me more like a burden than a partner.”

Newt gaped. “Dude, that’s not–“

“Since the start of this mess you’ve been distancing yourself from me, and it’s not the first time that this has happened. You did the same thing back in November and nearly got yourself _killed_ in the process. When are you going to start trusting me?”

“I _do_ trust you! I’m just trying to keep you _safe_ , dumb-ass!”

If looks could kill, Newt would’ve probably combusted on the spot, like an ant under a magnifying glass. “I don’t need to be protected!”

“Says the guy that ran off on his own and nearly got his throat torn out by a vampire,” Newt retorted.

“That’s completely–“

There was a loud shriek of what sounded like metal scraping together followed by a loud groan, and before Newt could finish thinking _oh crap_ – much less say it – the elevator shuddered violently. For a second, he was worried it might fall. He’d probably make it out of an elevator accident okay, but Hermann probably wouldn’t. Once the shuddering subsided, though, the elevator didn’t plummet to the first floor. It actually wasn’t moving at all, which was only slightly less worrying.

Newt _wasn’t_ claustrophobic – who’d ever heard of a vampire with claustrophobia? – but he wasn’t too fond of the idea of being trapped in an elevator. Especially this close to dawn. He definitely wasn’t fond of the idea of falling asleep while trapped in an elevator, either.

“Wonderful,” Hermann muttered under his breath, shooting Newt a scathing glare.

“Why are you looking at _me_? How is this my fault?”

“I have told you multiple times that this lift was unsafe.”

“Well, you were right! Are you happy now?”

Hermann scowled and looked away, shoulders tense, turning his gaze to the control panel of the elevator like he thought he could cow it into submission and convince the elevator to start working again. Once that didn’t work, he jabbed the big red emergency button.

Newt stared at the back of his head for awhile before letting out a frustrated sigh and sitting on the floor. It would take awhile for anyone to come out to fix the elevator, and probably even longer for them to actually get them out of it – he figured he might as well get comfortable. Well, comfortable-ish.

“Look, it’s just– What if I’d gotten there a few minutes later? She could have killed you, dude. She _would_ have killed you.”

Hermann remained silent, and wouldn’t look at him.

Newt swallowed hard and pulled his glasses off, giving them an appraising look once his eyes readjusted. One of the lenses was almost completely busted. It had to have happened earlier when he'd gotten tackled, but with everything that had been going on, he hadn’t even noticed until now. He closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall of the elevator.

The sun wouldn’t be up for another hour or so, but he already felt tired. He was so out of it he didn’t even realize Hermann had walked over to him until he heard him grunt softly in pain as he sat down beside him.

Newt opened his eyes. “Hey, dude, be careful.”

“I’m fine.” He glanced at him, gaze softer than Newt would have expected considering a second ago he’d been about ready to strangle him. “You look tired.”

“I am.”

“It’s early.”

“I know.”

“This has been bothering you for awhile now, hasn’t it?” Hermann asked quietly.

“Well, yeah. Summer mornings are always a pain in the ass.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Newt blinked rapidly and hoped it just looked like he was trying to stay awake. “Yeah, maybe a little. Okay, a lot. Shit, Hermann, there are vampires going around ripping people to shreds. One of them was literally a couple doors down from your office a couple days ago and the other one almost killed you tonight. My biggest worries used to be stuff like not overdoing it on the whipped cream or whether I steep the tea for long enough or not.”

“You don’t.”

Newt side-eyed him. “Yeah, thanks.”

After a long moment, Hermann said, “I never meant to make your life more difficult.”

“That’s not what I– God, screw it.” The more he talked, the more he kept making things worse, so he decided to stop talking. He leaned in and kissed Hermann.

“Newton–“ Hermann breathed.

“You didn’t make my life difficult. Well, okay, maybe you did a little, but not in a _bad_ way.”

Hermann gave him a soft smile. “I could say the same.”

“Yeah, but the whole murder and mayhem thing is definitely something I’d file under ‘bad.’”

“All of these things would still be happening, regardless of whether I’d entered into a relationship with you. I’m simply more aware of what’s going on around me than I otherwise would have been. I consider that a good thing.”

“Knowing there are things going bump in the night doesn’t make those things any less likely to eat you, y’know.”

“I’m not _entirely_ defenseless, Newton.”

Hermann picked up his cane and twisted the top of it and before Newt could think _hey I didn’t know it did that_ – or say it – Hermann pulled out what looked like one of those sword cane things Newt had only thought existed in movies or novelty stores – not something people actually _owned_.

Newt had never seen one made out of wood before, and it took him a few seconds to realize he was basically looking at a stake. A really long, narrow – very _sharp_ – wooden stake.

“When did you…?”

“Early December. After our… encounter… with Min, I was worried. Worried that she would come back.”

Newt’s heart clenched, and he wasn’t sure if it was the memory of Min staking him doing it, or the thought that Hermann had felt unsafe and he hadn’t noticed. He should have _noticed_ something like that, right? He should have noticed that his boyfriend had been so scared that he felt the need to weaponize his _cane_. He wished he had known.

“If you had that, why didn’t you use it earlier tonight?”

Hermann frowned. “I was hoping to avoid more death.”

“Yeah,” Newt replied softly. “Me too.”

Maybe it was Hermann’s sudden reveal of his own concerns or maybe it was the fact that the sun was about to come up and his brain was going a bit fuzzy, but Newt blurted. “My car wouldn’t start.”

Hermann gave him a look like he was pretty sure it was the latter. “Newton, you don’t have a car.”

Newt licked his lips. “Not now, I don’t. I did twenty-four years ago.”

The other man blinked at him.

“It had always been a piece of crap,” Newt continued. “Worse than _your_ car, even. So, I figured, ‘Hey, no big deal, I’ll walk.’ …My apartment was halfway across town and, y’know, I just had regular human stamina levels back then, so I was already starting to regret it less than halfway home. I was thinking about breaking down and trying to find a payphone to call a taxi and– and someone grabbed me.”

“Who was it?” Hermann asked, voice soft.

“I don’t know. I never got a real good look at him. He… dragged me into an alley. Looking back on it, he couldn’t have been too out of it or he would’ve just fed on me right where he grabbed me. He– he knew what he was doing. I mean, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean for me to survive, but the whole tearing out my throat thing… it wasn’t that he was just out of his mind with hunger, he just didn’t care if he killed me. I mean, there’s never any reason for vampire to _have_ to kill, but he did it anyway. He– he tore me up pretty bad.”

“He just… left you there?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he did. I mean, I’m pretty sure he figured I’d lay there and bleed out before the bite had a chance to work its magic, and I almost did. Do you know how slim the odds of _accidentally_ becoming a vampire are, dude? Pretty slim. Like, even when things are _planned_ it doesn’t always… take. I should have died.” Hermann shot him a wide-eyed look and Newt hastily added, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m – I’m _glad_ I didn’t, it’s just… it was pretty much the worst possible combination of factors and somehow I made it. I woke up a few hours later feeling really fuzzy and confused and… hungry. Most people have someone, y’know? There when they wake up. I didn’t. It was hard, but eventually I figured things out on my own.”

“I didn’t realize. I knew Tendo hadn’t been the one responsible for your… transformation, but I had always assumed it had been voluntary.”

Newt swallowed hard. “Yeah, not so much.”

“You could have told me.”

“I could’ve. And– and I _should’ve_ , probably, it just– it was always just easier to not think about it at all, I guess. Besides, being a vampire is awesome in a lot ways and for the most part I’m _okay_ , but… then all this stuff started happening and it brought back a lot of bad memories. I mean, these killings are different, but they’re also kinda the same, y’know? Whoever’s doing this doesn’t care that they’re leaving a trail of bodies behind them. They’re just going to keep on doing what they’re doing until…”

Hermann gave him one of those _looks_ of his – one of those fiercely determined looks that kind of lit up his eyes. “We will find out who’s responsible for this, whoever they are, and we’ll stop them. Together.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

Hermann pulled him close and kissed him gently and Newt definitely didn’t _swoon_ , okay. It was almost dawn and he was tired. He couldn’t be expected to keep holding himself upright. When Hermann wrapped an arm around him, Newt laid his head on his shoulder – partly out of affection, partly because he didn’t really have the energy to hold it up anymore.

He laid there for awhile, listening to the soothing thump of Herman’s heartbeat, and he was close enough to slipping under that he missed what Hermann said.

“Huh?”

“Your bite. Is it healing?”

“Yeah. ‘S been healed, for a couple hours.” _…Wait a minute._ “Bite marks,” Newt muttered with a frown.

“Hmm?”

“She didn’t have any bite marks.”

“Is that so unusual? I’ve seen you heal within minutes.”

“Yeah, but the bite usually… lingers. Mine– mine took over a week to disappear completely. Back then, I mean.”

“So her wound should have still been apparent,” Hermann mused. “What does it mean?”

“I’m not sure.” Honestly, he was a little embarrassed with himself for not realizing it sooner. Bernard hadn’t had any bite marks, either, but he’d been so baffled by everything else that was wrong with the two of them, he hadn’t noticed.

“Perhaps they healed faster as a result of their mutation.”

“Maybe,” Newt replied uncertainly.

It had to be significant somehow, but he was getting really sleepy and it was getting harder and harder to think.

“Sleep, Newton,” Hermann said, running his fingers through Newt’s hair.

“Don’t wanna.” Newt blinked and shook his head, trying and mostly failing to shake off the growing fuzzy feeling that was enveloping his brain. “Besides, if I pass out, what’re you gonna tell the elevator repair guys when they come to rescue us?”

“I’ll tell them you have a sleep disorder.”

He snickered softly. “That one _is_ a classic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Newt's vampire origin story was long overdue. So was that elevator crapping out. XD


	9. Chapter 9

At some point, Newton’s head had started to slide from its position on Hermann’s shoulder, so that by the time he had fallen asleep, he was all but lying in Hermann’s lap, face pressed into Hermann’s sweater sleeve. He supposed he should consider himself fortunate that vampires didn’t drool in their sleep. Usually.

With his free hand, he gently rubbed the back of Newton’s neck. After a moment’s consideration, he pulled back the collar of his jacket to get a better look. Newton had said his bite was fine, but Hermann wasn’t entirely convinced – the man had an alarming habit of understating his injuries. It did appear to have healed up without incident, however. He must have cleaned it at some point, because there wasn’t any blood on his neck, just a few faint and rapidly fading marks and fresh, pink – and blessedly intact – skin where earlier there had been a shredded, bleeding mess.

He lightly ran his fingertips across the area, and Newt hummed softly.

“Of all the stubborn… Newton, are you still _awake_?”

“No,” the other man mumbled.

Hermann sighed and ran his hand gently through the other man’s hair.

Newton made a noise that somehow managed to sound both pleased and indignant. "No fair. 'S cheating."

~

It was about another hour after Newton had fallen asleep before anyone showed up to answer the lift’s distress call.

Trying to explain Newton’s condition to the lift repairmen had been an interesting experience. Strange sleeping habits were a bit unusual, but not _too_ hard to dismiss. The lack of noticeable breathing would have been a bit harder to explain. Any time Hermann thought they might be in danger of noticing, he would subtly make extra noise to cover up the _lack_ of noise coming from Newton. It earned him some odd looks from the other men, but it succeeded in distracting them, so he could live with two men he was unlikely to ever see again thinking he was a bit strange.

Once he’d managed to assure them that Newton was fine, they were very helpful in getting the unconscious vampire up to the loft. It had been almost comical to watch them hoist Newton like a sack of potatoes and carry him off to the bedroom. It was a gesture Hermann appreciated, even though Newton likely didn’t care one way or another whether he was dumped onto a couch or a bed.

After the two repair men had left, Hermann decided to tend to Newton’s clothing situation. Namely, that he wasn’t particularly dressed for bed. He managed to get his jacket off after a bit of wrestling. With it off, the full of extent of his bleeding earlier was made evident. Most of the left shoulder of his t-shirt was stained with blood, though it had long since dried. He would have liked to have taken it off of him and tossed it in the laundry – or, more realistically, the garbage – but trying to get it off of him while he was completely limp and unconscious was a daunting prospect.

He folded the jacket and laid it at the foot of the bed, then moved on to Newton’s shoes. As he unlaced them, he noticed one of them had a splatter of what Hermann was reasonably certain was blood, though fortunately the lift repairmen had either not seen it or mistaken it for something more innocent.

Hermann sat on the edge of the bed with a weary groan and pulled his sweater up over his head, then settled back beside Newton on the bed. He hadn’t realized just how tired he was until he was lying there and the full weight of the night’s events hit him and he felt incredibly exhausted.

It was early, and it was his day off. He could afford to nap for an hour or so. He scooted closer to Newton, laid his head on the shoulder that wasn’t crusted in blood, and closed his eyes.

Three hours later, he startled awake rather abruptly and spent the next five minutes staring at the ceiling trying to calm himself. He had a horrifying feeling that someone was in the apartment that shouldn’t be there. It was ridiculous, of course, it was just a bad dream – or the remnants of one, at least – but knowing that and _feeling_ it were two different things.

He glanced at Newton. The other man, of course, hadn’t moved at all in the past several hours and likely wouldn’t be awake for another ten. It wouldn’t be practical to sleep there with him all day, although it was a tempting thought. He still felt deeply tired, and his leg and hip hurt far more than usual. Getting tackled last night probably hadn’t done him any favors in that respect.

~

He tried to enjoy his day off to the best of his ability, which – given everything that had happened recently – wasn’t much, but as frustrating as it was to try to go about his day like nothing was wrong, there wasn’t much else he could do. Going to the club might have lead them to another victim, but it hadn’t lead them to any _answers_. They were no closer to finding out what was going on than they had been, and now two more people were dead.

He went about his day more or less as he normally would have. He watered the house-plants out on the balcony. After breakfast, he went out to do some grocery shopping. Newton had a habit of forgetting several essentials in his haste to grab whatever he happened to be craving at the time. Unsurprising, really, considering he had no actual need for solid food and Hermann was a fairly recent addition to the household.  

It felt a bit surreal to be shopping for produce less than twenty-four hours after nearly getting his throat torn out by a vampire, and even more surreal to make a special trip down the cereal aisle to fetch some of Newt’s beloved Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

That evening, he was cooking dinner for himself when the sun finally dipped below the horizon and before long Newt appeared, looking disheveled and not entirely awake.

“Hey.”

"Good evening," Hermann said, glancing up from the stove.

The vampire yawned and walked over him, wrapping his arms around his waist and pressing his face into his back. "What's cooking?"

"Nothing of importance. I caught up on my reading and went out to stock up on some necessities." Truth be told, he had also spent quite a bit of time catching up on his Netflix queue.

Newton chuckled. “No, I meant, ‘What are you cooking?’”

“…Oh.”

“Smells good.”

“Are you referring to the pasta or me?” Hermann asked as Newt stood on his tip-toes and nuzzled his neck.

He felt Newt grin against his skin. “Both.”

Hermann put down the wooden spoon he’d been poking at the pasta with and turned around to kiss Newton, earning him a surprised but pleased noise from the other man.

“You’re in desperate need of a shower,” Hermann said, cupping Newton’s face in his hands.

“Oh man,” Newt breathed, grinning at him crookedly. “What a sweet-talker. Are you telling me I’m smelly?”

“No, I’m telling you you’re _filthy_.” Newt was still wearing his bloodstained clothing from the night before. “Although, yes, now that you mention it, you are rather odiferous.”

“’Odiferous,’” Newt wheezed, burying his face in Hermann’s sweater, shoulders shaking.

Hermann’s mouth twitched as he kissed the top of Newton’s head.

“I promise I’ll shower after I rescue your dinner.”

“My dinner doesn’t need rescuing.”

“Hermann, it’s burning.”

“No it–“ The unmistakable smell of _something_ burning reached his nose and he half-turned to see that the pasta was indeed starting to burn around the edges of the pan. “…You distracted me,” he accused.

Newton shook his head vigorously. “Don’t blame this on me, dude. Take responsibility for your own cooking disasters.” He gave Hermann a sympathetic squeeze. “Here, let me take care of it.”

“I’m fully capable of cooking my own meals.”

“Says the guy who managed to burn _pasta_. Trust me, there’s still time. I can save it.”

“Says the man who, up until a few months ago, kept nothing but blood and _ice cream_ in his refrigerator.”

~

“There’s something that’s been bothering me.”

Newton glanced over his shoulder. “Just one thing?”              

“At the moment, yes. That young woman last night. She was different somehow.”

“The fangs. I saw them, too.” Newton paused, and turned his attention back to stirring the pasta. “Well, and felt them.”

“Bernard’s weren’t like that, were they?”

“No, they weren’t. His were just… regular fangs. Hers looked more like something out of Fright Night.”

“…What?”

“Fright Night, y’know, the movie.”

Hermann stared at him blankly.

The other man turned the burner off and poked at the pasta some more. “Nevermind, dude, my _point_ is that I’ve never seen or heard of a vampire having fangs like that before. I mean, there’s a bit of variety, but generally speaking we’re all pretty similar…” He trailed off, staring ahead with a troubled look on his face.

“What is it?” Hermann prodded.

“Vampire bites produce a specific amount of venom when they’re biting someone, so when someone gets turned into a vampire, it’s usually the product of a very specific amount of it in their system, y’know? I mean, there are other variables that make it complicated, but... basically it triggers a sort of mutation, but it’s controlled. With what’s happening now, it’s almost like somehow a larger amount’s getting pumped into them than it should be and it’s causing the mutation to be unstable.”

Hermann’s tone was dry. “What exactly does that mean, then? They’re being turned by someone with a glandular problem?”

Newton snorted and shrugged. “Maybe? Could be.”

“You aren’t going to suffer any ill effects from her bite, are you?”

“Nah. I mean, it probably wouldn’t do pleasant things to a human, but I’m already… y’know. Whatever’s happening is happening during the actual transformation. It shouldn’t have any effect on someone who’s already changed.”

“Are you certain?”

“About as certain as I can be, dude. I haven’t learned a whole lot so far. Both times the bodies were already decomposing by the time I got a chance to take a look at them, and that kinda limits my options.”

“We need more information,” Hermann muttered.

“Yeah, I’m just… I’m not sure how to get it. We kind of hit a dead end last night, y’know? I’m still not really sure how that club is involved in what’s going on – or if it even _is_ involved. One of the Kaidonovskys were there, so I mean, was _that_ just a coincidence?”

“Somehow I find that unlikely.”

“Which means they’re probably involved, but I’m not really sure _how._ It doesn’t add up, because… what? They’re going around biting people and turning them? Even if that’s what they’re doing, it still doesn’t explain why or how people are turning into… _that_. I mean, it would be bad enough if they were going around turning people left and right against their will anyway, but what’s happening here? Is worse. A lot worse. They survive just long enough to kill even _more_ people, then they die, too.”

Newton turned the burner off and sighed, poking at the pasta with a wooden spoon and staring at it for longer than was probably necessary to determine whether it was ready.

Hermann stared at the dejected slump of his shoulders for several long moments before saying, “I have to go back.”

Newt turned around and looked at him, leaning back against the stove. “Where? To the club?”

“No, Bernard’s home.” Hermann tapped his fingers against the kitchen table thoughtfully. “If I could take a closer look around, perhaps I’ll find something. There has to be _something_ else for us to go on. Some other indication of what might have happened to him and, by extension, the young woman last night. If I speak to his roommate again, I think I can convince him to let me see Bernard’s room.”

Newton snorted softly. “Hermann, I’m not even sure how the whole ‘Board of Education’ disguise worked the first time. I’m not so sure it’s gonna work again.”

Hermann raised an eyebrow and couldn’t quite keep the indignation out of his voice. “And why not?”

“Dude, no offense, but you’re, like, one of the worst liars I’ve ever met. I don’t even need superhuman senses to tell when you’re lying, or even when you’re just _exaggerating_ a tiny bit, because your whole face does this thing.”

“What thing?”

The other man gave him a look. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t.”

Newton sighed and put his hands on his hips. “Really?”

Hermann stared long and hard at him.

“Okay.” Newt took off his glasses and cleared his throat, then rolled his eyes dramatically sideways, scrunched up his nose and scowled deeply.

“Charming. You’re saying that’s what I look like when I’m lying?”

“No, this is just your regular face. When you _lie_ , it goes kinda–“ Newt’s eyebrows twitched and his nostrils flared and his eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.

Hermann felt moderately offended. “It most certainly does not.”

“It most certainly does.”

Hermann continued to stare. Newton’s alleged impersonation of him was a bit like a trainwreck – he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sight. He did _not_ make those facial expressions.

~

Hermann sat in the car for a few minutes after arriving at Bernard’s former residence, trying to think of how best to approach this.

He didn’t want to admit it, but Newton may have had a point. It had been fortunate that his ruse had worked the first time – he wasn’t entirely sure it would hold up under scrutiny a second. He still didn’t particularly want to break in to find what he was looking for. As it turned out, however, breaking in once again turned out to be unnecessary.

Bernard’s roommate, Scott, answered the door fairly quickly when he knocked, peeking out curiously. “Oh, hey. I wasn’t expecting to see you again. Uh, was there something else you needed?”

“Actually,” Hermann replied, “Yes.”

“Come on in.”

~

“Can I get you anything to drink?” Scott asked.

“No, that’s alright, I’m fine.”

The young man nodded and sat down on the couch across from Hermann. “Did you end up finding anything out about what Bernard was up to at that club? I mean, if you can tell me anything.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Hermann replied. “It was something of a dead end.”

“Well, that sucks. He still hasn’t turned up around here, either.”

Hermann couldn’t very well tell him Bernard wasn’t going to turn up, and this knowledge left him sitting there in awkward silence for a few moments longer than was probably wise if he wanted to avoid suspicion. “Perhaps he decided to take a vacation.”

“Without telling anyone? I… I dunno, I guess he could have, but running off without warning isn’t really like him.”

“Is there anything else you could think of that might be useful?”

“I honestly wish there was, but I pretty much told you everything I know already. Bernard kept to himself a lot, you know?”

“Has there been anyone… strange… lurking nearby lately?”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Lurking? I don’t– Well, actually now that you mention it, a couple days ago this woman was sort of… hanging around across the street? She was really nonchalant about it, but she walked by several times. I figured maybe she was meeting someone and they were running late or something.”

“Was this during the day? Or at night?”

“At night. Why?”

Hermann frowned. “Er, may I use your restroom?”

The young man nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, sure, man. It’s just up the stairs and to the right.”

“Thank you.”

~

Rifling through a stranger’s medicine cabinet after going to the bathroom under false pretenses had to have been illegal. At the _very_ least it probably wasn’t very polite, but if he had asked to look around, that might have started setting off some warning bells. Ideally, he had wanted to look around Bernard’s room, but he hadn’t been sure if he’d be able to manage that without being caught. At least here Bernard’s roommate wasn’t likely to barge in without warning.

At first glance there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, just what you would typically expect to find in one’s medicine cabinet. Then he saw a non-descript vial, unlabeled and sitting half-hidden behind a row of other medications and items. He nudged the other items aside and picked it up. He held the vial of liquid up to the light. It was colorless and mostly clear, though it was a bit cloudy.

After a moment of consideration he took out his cell phone and called Newton. It rang enough times that he thought for a moment he was too busy working to answer it.

“Yeah, hey!”

“Newton. Are you busy?”

“Nah, not really. Well, I mean, I’m fixing a latte, but I can multi-task. What is it? Did you find something?”

“I’m not entirely certain if it’s anything relevant to the situation, but I did find something a bit suspicious, yes. It’s a liquid of some kind, in a vial. I found it in the medicine cabinet, but there’s no label on it to suggest what it might be.”

“What does it smell like?”

“What does it _smell_ like?” Hermann repeated incredulously.

“Yeah, dude, take the top off and sniff it.”

“I’m not sure that’s wise.”

“If it is what I think it is, you’ll be fine.”

“And if it _isn’t_ what you think it is?”

“Then you’ll _still_ be fine. …Probably.”

“Oh, for the love of…“

Hermann unscrewed the cap of the bottle and quickly took a deep whiff before he had time to change his mind. It smelled… like nothing. Or, to be more accurate, it didn’t smell like anything he could really think to compare it to. It was a bitter smell, almost musky, but not especially strong. He relayed this information to Newton.

“Shit,” the other man muttered.

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to say anything until I know for sure. I’ll have to check it out myself.”

Something in his tone was worrying. “Newton, what do you _think_ it is?”

“Look, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, especially bad ones. Can you take it with you? I’ll look at it when I get home.”

“You want me to _steal_ it?”

“I want you to _borrow_ it. Besides, it’s not like Bernard’s gonna be needing it.”

“I’m not sure if his roommate will see it that way.”

“So? Don’t tell him. He probably won’t even know the difference.”

“ _Newton_.”

“Hermann, this is important.” And Hermann could tell from the tone of his voice that it was. Newton rarely sounded so serious unless the situation was, well, serious. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t. I really need to see it for myself to be sure.”

“I’ll take it,” Hermann replied with a sigh. “Do you want me to bring it to you?”

“Nah. There’s no rush. I mean, there _is_ a rush, kind of, but I don’t think a few hours is going to make a huge difference at this point.”

“Alright. I’ll see you later this evening, then.”

“Yeah. Be careful on the way home, okay?”

“You, too.”

“Hey, I’m _always_ careful. Well, careful-ish.”

Hermann hung up the phone and opened the bathroom door. There stood Bernard’s roommate, not looking very pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another cliffhanger! Kind of! Though I'm hoping the fact that it's a slightly less evil one than usual helps soften the blow. XD 
> 
> Hermann seems to eat a lot of pasta, which was originally an oversight on my part, but I decided to just keep it and roll with it because, hey, who doesn't love pasta.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up two months late with Starbucks and a new chapter* 
> 
> I know it's been a long wait, but here it is! Thank you to everyone who continued to encourage me while I struggled with writer's block and some personal crap. And also thanks to my beta-reader for also bearing with me. <3

Newt ended the call and squeezed his phone back into his pocket.  He stared at the latte he’d made and really, really hoped that he was wrong.  In fact, he was kind of half-hoping he’d wake up and find out that the past week had just been a really bad dream.  Except vampires didn’t dream.  Half-conscious hallucinations while kind of almost dying didn’t count.

The man who had ordered the latte cleared his throat loudly and Newt spun around, plastering a grin he wasn’t quite feeling onto his face.  “Uh, sorry about that, dude.  Your latte’s ready!”

“I ordered a frappuccino.”

“Oh.”

Chuck, of all people, was the one to salvage the situation by speedily whipping up a frappuccino for the irate customer, and he didn’t let Newt hear the end of it for the rest of the night.  Newt normally would have been annoyed, but he was too distracted to really worry about it.

~

He’d been hoping for a chance to maybe ask Pentecost about the Kaidonovskys, but he didn’t come into work – Herc had said he was talking over business at a meeting with the new business partners earlier that day and had taken the rest off for “personal reasons.”  Obviously he hadn’t _actually_ had a day meeting with them, considering that would require new business partners that weren’t _vampires_ , so Newt had no idea what Pentecost was really up to.  Maybe he had his doubts about the Kaidonovskys, too.

So instead he decided to ask Mako.  “Hey, Mako, you know how your dad’s new business partners are vampires…?”

Mako, who had been peacefully putting out the latest batch of muffins and coffee cakes gave him a startled look, and it occurred to him that he probably could have eased into that line of questioning a little bit.  Oops?

She quickly glanced around the mostly empty shop before quietly responding.  “…Yes?”

“Uh, how much do you guys know about them?”

She gave him a pointed look.  “You mean, are they murderers?”

“Well,” Newt replied, tapping his fingers against the countertop.  “Basically.”

“Newt,” she admonished, “I would think you of all people would be more open-minded.”

“Doesn’t it seem a little strange to you that people started dying right around the time they showed up?”

Mako returned her attention back to the muffins.  “It _does_ seem like an odd coincidence,” she mused, “and Dad always told me to be wary of coincidences, but… he also wouldn’t have agreed to keep working with them if he thought they were involved, and he wouldn’t have contacted them in the first place without looking into their… habits… first.”

“But what do _you_ think?”

She paused for a moment.  “I think that vampires are often cautious creatures – they have to be careful to avoid unwanted attention if they want to survive.  Careful enough that whatever secrets they might be hiding may be buried deep enough that even someone who’s thorough could miss them.”  She gave him a curious look.  “What do _you_ think?  You’ve been investigating, haven’t you?”

He snorted.  “Investigating” made it sound like was some well-coordinated effort to get to the bottom of things when it was really more like fumbling around in the dark looking for a light switch in a really big room.  That metaphor didn’t really work well, since he actually had awesome night vision, but whatever.

“What makes you think that?”

“You’ve called out sick twice this week.”

“So?”

“You don’t _get_ sick.”

“Okay, so I might’ve poked around a little, but I haven’t really found a whole lot.”

“But you have found something.”  It wasn’t a question.

“I– I might have.  Dunno for sure yet, though.  It could be nothing.”

Mako didn’t look convinced, but before she could question him further another wave of customers rolled in and they couldn’t really keep talking about vampires and murder at that point.

~

By the time the end of his shift came around, Newt was eager to get back to the loft and either confirm or disprove his suspicions, because either way the suspense was killing him.  The sooner he knew what was going on, the sooner he could figure out what to do next.

He locked the front door to the coffee shop, spun around, and nearly tripped over himself to keep from walking straight into Sasha Kaidonovsky.  He was pretty sure if he’d been human he would’ve just keeled over on the spot, right then and there.  What was with people sneaking up on him in front of the coffee shop?  Did he have a sign on his back or something?

“Hi,” he squeaked, trying to sound friendly and casual and not like he’d almost pissed his pants.

“I did not mean to startle you,” Sasha said, looking amused.

He cleared his throat and tried again.  “Uh, no, it’s alright, I just… didn’t see you there.”

“Perhaps you should pay closer attention to your surroundings, little one.”

“That’s good advice, probably, yeah.”  He tried really, really hard not to fidget nervously.  “So, uh, what can I do for you?”

“I was hoping we might have an opportunity to talk.”

He couldn’t help it, he fidgeted.  “About what?”

She was staring at him really intently, and he was having trouble figuring reading her expression.  “Coffee, of course.”

Newt wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but “coffee” hadn’t really been it.  He blinked.  “Coffee?”

“With all the talk of business taking up my time, I haven’t had a chance to taste the coffee I’m investing in, but–” she glanced at the “closed” sign on the door, “–I can come back another time.”

He still wasn’t sure if she really just wanted to talk about coffee or if “coffee” was a secret code-word for “you know too much,” but if she’d wanted to kill him, she probably would have done it already.  He didn’t have a stake sticking out of chest yet, though, so things were already going better than they had the last time someone had sneaked up on him after work.

“Well, everyone else has gone home already, but uh… wanna come in?”

~

Newt sat down across from Sasha and scooted a caramel macchiato in her direction.  She accepted it very graciously, and the whole situation felt a bit surreal, considering he’d spent the past several days wondering if she and her husband were going around killing people.

“Impressive,” she commented after taking a sip of her drink.

“Thanks.”  Newt gave himself a mental high-five.  He’d been relieved when she hadn’t asked for tea, because that probably would have been a fast way to end up on the chopping block during a company merger.

“Have you worked here for long?”

“Uh, about… eight years?  Eight and a half?”

“A long time.  Too long, some would say, for one of us to linger in one place.”

Tendo had already given him that particular lecture a couple years ago, about how eventually people were going to notice he wasn’t getting any older than he should consider other options.  It had never been an issue before.  Before the coffee shop, he’d never stayed in one place for more than a year or two – sometimes not even that long – but…

“Yeah, well, I have a good thing going here,” he replied, fidgeting with his styrofoam cup.  “Anyway, I think it’ll be awhile still before anyone gets too suspicious.  Most people don’t look at a dude aging more gracefully than usual and go, ‘Hey, I bet that guy’s a vampire!’”  He paused.  “Well, I mean, maybe they do, but not _seriously_.”

“An easy trap to fall into, especially when you work for someone so… accepting.  Others would be far less lenient, if they knew the truth.”

“Oh come on,” Newt snorted.  “It’s 2014, no one actually _hunts_ vampires anymore.”

Sasha took another sip of her drink.  “How old are you, little one?”

“Fifty-nine, why?”

She laughed.  “So young.”

Newt could feel a blush creeping it’s way up his neck.  “Why?  How old are _you_?”

Sasha looked at him from over the edge of her coffee cup.  “Seven hundred and thirty-nine.”

Newt managed not to spray coffee all over her and the table, which was a pretty huge achievement, he thought.  Instead he just kind of sputtered and choked.  He rubbed at his nose, halfway expecting it to be dripping coffee, the way his nasal passage was burning.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah.  Yeah, I’m good.”

She was _smirking_.  She had done that on purpose.  She had deliberately waited for him to take a sip of his coffee before she’d said that.  He almost wanted to laugh.  Was that weird?  Was it weird to be having a casual, _normal_ conversation with someone who was six hundred and eighty years older than him who might or might not be involved in some nefarious goings-on?

_Nefarious goings-on?_ It had finally happened.  Hermann had finally rubbed off on him.

“So where’s Mr. Kaidonovsky tonight?”

“Out.  He enjoys exploring new places.”

Was that why he'd been at the club the other night?  Was it just a really weird coincidence that he'd happened to show up there right before another mutant vampire had lost it?  He supposed it was possible, but it seemed kind of unlikely.

“Does he enjoy going clubbing?”   _Oh, that’s real smooth, Newt.  Very subtle._

Sasha narrowed her eyes.  “Do you?”

Newt took another sip of his coffee and hoped the other vampire would chalk up his increased heart rate to caffeine and not fear.  “Uh, no, not really.  I don’t handle crowds too well.”

"Control comes with age and experience."

"I can _control_ myself,” he replied, a little indignantly.  “I just... don’t like a lot of noise.  People noise, I mean.”

“Yet you choose to work here.”

“We have our busy days, but it’s not that bad.  If I just focus on what I’m doing I can usually ignore the worst of it.”

Sasha raised an eyebrow.  “‘Usually?’”

“I don’t leap across the counter and bite people when I get a little overwhelmed, if that’s what you’re asking.  Some days – some days I go home early if I’m having trouble handling it.  Do you think I’d still have a job, otherwise?  Or, y’know, a life?  Eating the customers is a big no-no.”

She stared at him.  “A fair point,” she mused after a long moment of silence.  “I meant no offense, little one.”

Newt swallowed his coffee hard enough that it kind of hurt.  “None taken.  I’ve met enough vampires that were a bit–” he make growly noises and waved his hands in the air.  “So I understand what it’s like to be kinda wary.”  He laughed and hoped it sounded a lot less nervous than it felt.  “You never know who might be a bloodthirsty killer, y’know?”

“Especially when there has been so much death in the area recently.”

“Yeah, bad timing, I guess..  I mean– what with you two rolling into town right in the middle of someone’s killing spree.”

Sasha stared at him very intently and he _really_ wished she was easier to read, because he wasn’t sure if she planning to reach across the table and rip his heart out of his chest or something or–

“I must be going if I'm to make it home before dawn."

Right.  Dawn.   _That_ pesky thing.  

~

Newt got home a good fifteen minutes later than he’d wanted to, thanks to his unexpected visitor, but he hoped Hermann wouldn’t hold it against him.  After all, at least this time he wasn’t lying almost dead in an alley.  That was a plus, right?

Hermann was pacing around the living room restlessly when Newt reached the top of the staircase.  There’d been a note on the elevator doors saying the repairs had been completed and it should work as good as new, but Newt had his doubts, and he really didn’t want to spend two nights in a row trapped in an elevator.  Just the thought of getting in it kind of gave him the chills.  

...Maybe he was a _little bit_ claustrophobic.

“So what happened?” Newt asked.

Hermann stopped pacing and sighed.  “Well, Bernard’s roommate overheard our conversation, at which point he also realized I wasn’t from the Board of Education.  He asked me to leave, politely, and implied that he planned on letting the faculty know about my escapades.”

“Shit, that’s bad.  It’s bad, right?”

“It certainly isn’t good.”

“Dude, you could lose your job.”

“Yes, Newton, I realize that.”

They stood there in silence for several long minutes, the only sounds the air conditioner whirring and Hermann’s heartbeat.  Well, and Newt’s, which was kind of hammering at the thought that he might’ve ended his boyfriend’s career by encouraging his descent into criminal activity.

Hermann seemed to realize the direction his thoughts were going, because as he sat down on the couch, he said, “This isn’t your fault, Newton.  I knew there was a risk something like this might happen.  If I _do_ lose my position at the college, at least it will have been worth getting a step closer to putting an end to all this.”

“That’d be a fair point if you hadn’t gotten _caught_ , dude, but we’ve got nothing.”

Hermann gave him a look that was borderline mischievous.  “On the contrary, I didn’t leave empty-handed.”

Newt blinked at him.  “Wh–”

The other man pulled a small vial out of his coat pocket and handed it to him.  “I managed to put this away before Bernard’s roommate realized that I had it.  Fortunately, he didn’t have the forethought to check if anything was missing before he showed me the way out.”

“Holy shit,” Newt breathed.  “You’re amazing.”

Hermann smirked, visibly pleased with himself.  “I know.”

“Also, that was really, really sneaky and I’m a terrible influence on you, man.”

“Yes, I know that, too.”

Newt took the vial from him gingerly and stared at it for awhile.  He’d had this knotted up feeling of dread in his stomach since earlier when Hermann had described it to him.  He’d been pretty sure then of what it was, but he had really, _really_ hoped that he was wrong – that he’d get home and it’d be something totally innocent, crisis averted.  Well, maybe not averted, but at least not as much of a clusterfuck as it could have been.

“For the love of God, Newton,” Hermann prodded, when Newt remained silent.  “Say something.  Do you know what it is?”

He swallowed.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I do.”

“Do you plan on perhaps _telling_ me?”

Newt sat down beside him.  “It’s, uh.  It’s vampire venom.”

“Vampire venom,” Hermann repeated.  

“Yep.”

"You mean–”

“I mean what I mean.  It’s the stuff that makes little baby vampires.  Actual ones, usually, not these weird ones we’ve been running into.  See, vampires have these glands, up around–“  

Newt had his hand about halfway in his mouth before he noticed the intrigued but also slightly disgusted arch of Hermann’s eyebrow.  He removed his hand from his mouth.

“Okay, it doesn’t matter where the glands are, the point is, we have these glands that secrete the stuff that, well, makes people into vampires.  A little bit comes out when a vampire bites into someone… but only like a really, really negligible amount, which is why I can bite you and nothing happens.  To actually _do_ anything, you have to sort of… consciously flex the muscle that makes it release?  It takes actual effort, and you usually have to drain the person you’re doing it to _a lot_ while you’re doing it.  If you don’t pump enough venom in there as you do it, nothing happens and the person just dies, but if you get _too much_ , the shock is too much for the body and, well, the person still dies.  It’s why vampirism doesn’t have a very high survival rate, it’s hard to get the ratio right.”

“I understand all that, but how does this account for the strange mutations?”

“Well, they were doing this artificially and without having a _live_ one to examine, I have no way of knowing how much of this stuff they’ve been injecting into themselves, dude.  Vampirism’s basically a sort of controlled mutation, when you’re doing it the, uh, old-fashioned way, but like _this_?  Probably not the most stable or reliable thing to be shooting up.”  Newt shrugged helplessly.  “It explains why each of them were a bit different, though, if they were all injecting different amounts of it, they could’ve mutated at different rates.”

Hermann looked pretty horrified and Newt couldn’t really blame him.  “Where would Bernard have gotten this?”

Newt had a few ideas.  Okay, that wasn’t true – he just had one.  “That _son of a bitch_.”

“Newton–”

“I should have known!”  He slammed the vial down on the coffee table so hard he was probably lucky he didn’t crack it.  “I should have figured it out _way_ before now!  The venom, all of it.  How could I be so–”

“Are you sure it’s him?”

“Am I _sure_?” Newt laughed incredulously.  “Dude, nobody could do this kind of thing in town without him knowing about him and believe me, if he knows about it, he’s in on it.”

Newt glared at the vial and remembered old conversations about venom glands and possible “medical uses” that he had been naive enough to think the stuff would actually get used for, so he’d enthusiastically explained everything he knew about venom production in great detail.  He’d been young and stupid, but that didn’t change the fact that people were _dying_ because of this crap.  

He turned around and headed towards the elevator, aggravated enough that he’d almost forgotten he’d sworn off the elevator.  “I’m going over there.”

“Then I’m going with you,” Hermann replied, following after him.

Newt stopped and spun back around, shaking his head.  “No, I’m– I’m going alone.”

Hermann didn’t look too happy.  Not that the past few days had been sunshine and rainbows in general, but he didn’t look pleased.  Not even the angry kind of not-pleased, just the… upset, heart-wrenching kind of not-pleased.  “I thought we had agreed we’re in this together.”

“We are.  Dude, we are, I promise.”  Newt wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged him.  “It’s just– last time we were over there, he threatened to shoot you.”

Hermann wrapped his arms tightly around his shoulders and laid his chin on top of his head with a sigh.  “Yes, and last time _you_ went over there alone, you nearly killed yourself.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t in top shape, then, and I am now.  If he tries anything, I’ll be ready for him.  Look, it probably won’t even come to that.”  He glanced upward and gave the other man a reassuring squeeze.  “I’m just going to go over there and have a calm, reasonable conversation with the guy, okay?”

Hermann didn’t look very reassured, and Newt couldn’t really blame him – that hadn’t been very reassuring.

~

“You know, kid,” Hannibal said when Newt burst into the coffee shop and stormed up to the counter to accuse him of indirect murder.  “I’m getting really tired of you barging in here and accusing me of things I didn’t do.  It’s bad for business.”

A customer side-eyed Newt like they expected him to bite – ha! – before hurriedly grabbing their latte off the counter and leaving.

“Yeah, I’m not buying it this time, you asshole.  You can’t seriously expect me to believe you’re not involved in this.”

“Even if I was still in the business – which I’m not – but even if I _was_ , I wouldn’t be peddling that crap.  It’s not good business to sell stuff that _kills_ my clients.”

“Never stopped you from selling vampire organ transplants that don’t work more than half the time.”

“That’s different.”

Newt laughed bitterly.  “Oh really?  How, exactly?”

“People know the odds aren’t great, and they accept the risk.  The process is as perfected as it’s gonna get.   _That_ stuff–“  He gestured to the vial Newt was holding a few inches from his face.  “–never worked right.  You never figured out how to get it work without giving people fangs and a sun allergy.”

Yeah, Newt was sure the “accept the risk” rationalization was really comforting to all the people that didn’t take to their expensive new organs so well.  “Oh, I’m sorry, did my unexpected retirement put a cramp in your product line-up?  That’s terrible.”

“My _point_ ,” Hannibal replied, starting to look really annoyed, “is that I wouldn’t sell a half-finished product with a zero percent success rate.  Whoever’s spreading this stuff around has nothing to do with me.”

“But it has to be one of your guys,” Newt insisted.  “It has to be someone who worked for you at _some_ point, because you and your guys are the only ones that know where the glands are and how to get active venom out of them.”

Hannibal leaned forward.  “And where’d we learn that from?”

“Nice try, but I had no way of knowing what you planned on _really_ using it for.  I didn’t know you wanted to sell the stuff to people looking for a drug fix.”

“Maybe not, but you sure didn’t examine things too closely as long as you were well-fed and well-paid.”

He wanted to rip his face off.  He really, really did.  Nobody was really paying attention, he could maybe get away with it, right?  “If I find out that you _did_ have something to do with this, I’ll be back.”

“I’m shaking in my seven hundred dollar shoes.”

“You paid seven hundred dollars for those?  What a rip-off.”

He couldn’t see Hannibal’s eyes, but he could practically _feel_ them narrowing, and it gave him a tiny jolt of satisfaction.  What he _really_ wanted to do was snarl in his face – fangs and all – but he knew Hannibal would see it for the mostly-hollow threat that it was, so instead he just turned around stormed out of Raiju.  

Everything felt really bright and really _loud_ and he felt like he was going to explode.  He walked far enough away to be out of eyesight then stood at the curb for awhile, trying to calm himself down before heading back home.  The fresh air helped – not a lot, but a little bit.

God, he hated that guy.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bluh, sorry for the long wait! Hope the chapter length makes up for it! <3

Hermann had every intention of staying awake and waiting for Newton to get home, but he’d made the mistake fairly early on of closing his eyes and when he woke, it was already well into the morning.

As the fog of sleep lifted from his mind, he felt a sudden stab of panic.  Where was Newton?

He grabbed his cane and stood as quickly as his stiff leg would allow.  He almost called for Newton before realizing that, even if the man were home – and he truly hoped he was, he didn’t want to to think about the implications if he _wasn’t_ – he would be in no condition to respond to him.

He checked the bedroom first.  It was as neatly made as it had been when Hermann had left it earlier that morning, which was a sure sign Newton hadn’t touched it any time recently.  The other man was nowhere to be seen, on the bed or anywhere between it and the bedroom doorway.  If he wasn’t in the bedroom, or the living room, then that only left the kitchen.  Or possibly the bathroom, though Hermann sincerely hoped he’d have more sense than to fall asleep on the toilet or – God forbid – the bathtub.

...He checked the bathroom, just to be sure, but he wasn’t there, either.

_Do_ not _panic._

Even if Newton hadn't come home, there were plenty of other possibilities that didn't involve the worst-case scenarios that were whirling around in his head as he made his way to the kitchen.

He stood in the entrance to the kitchen and the surge of relief he felt was so strong, he had to lean against the doorway for a moment to steady himself.  Newton was asleep at the kitchen table, face buried in his tattooed arms.  There was a bowl of half-eaten ice cream sitting in front of him that had long since melted into a puddle.

He considered trying to wake him and get him to move to bed – or at the very least the couch – but he was already far too sound asleep for that.  Once Hermann ensured he wasn’t in any danger of falling out of his chair at some point throughout the day, he left him where he was.  Whatever Newton had discovered the night before would have to wait, he supposed.  He was just glad he’d gotten back home in one piece.

Hermann took the bowl to the sink and poured the puddle of ice cream down the drain.  After a moment's consideration, he grabbed a clean bowl from cupboard and poured himself some cereal.  It was about time for breakfast, after all.

~

Newton hadn’t fallen out of his chair while he slept throughout the day, but if the sound Hermann heard that evening was any indication, he may have when he woke up.

Hermann stopped reading and laid his book on his lap.  "Newton?"

"I'm alright!"

He sighed and picked his book back up.  Two seconds later Newton emerged from the kitchen looking disheveled, but otherwise no worse for wear.  

“Uh, good morn– evening.  Good evening.”

Newt walked over and all but collapsed onto the couch with an exaggerated yawn.

Hermann laid down his book again and looked at him expectantly.  "Well?"

"'Well,' what?"

"I seem to recall you left in a hurry last night to speak to a certain person...?"

Newt groaned and ran his hands over his face.  "Oh, that."

"Yes, _that_.  Did you learn anything?  Is he involved?"

"He says he isn't," Newt replied, face still hidden in his hands, voice muffled.

"And do you believe him?"

He snorted and put his hands down.  "Not a chance."

"So we're no closer to knowing what he may or may not be up to."

He almost regretted saying it, because the look on Newton’s face was entirely too tired for someone who had just woken up from sleeping all day long.  "Pretty much."

The night Tendo had driven him home, and later to Newton's makeshift lab, Hermann had discussed with him the odd coincidence of two mutant vampires frequenting the same club.  They both had agreed that there had to be _some_ connection, even if he and Newton hadn’t been able to find it at the time.  The other vampire had mentioned that he might look into it further, and Hermann was just beginning to consider calling him to see if he'd discovered anything else on his end when his cell phone rang.  The timing was so uncanny he briefly wondered if some vampires possessed telepathy.

A few moments later, Hermann had put his phone on speaker so Newt could hear, and Tendo told them what he had found – or rather, what he _hadn’t_ found.

“There was nothing on the news about the accident at the club the other night.  Nothing on the police radios about it, either.”

Newton leaned forward on the couch.  “Someone covered it up.”

Hermann glanced down at the phone curiously.  “You listen to the police radio?”

“It’s a hobby.”

“Yeah, okay, Batman,” Newt snickered.  “Okay, so what are we thinking, then?”

“Well, you said the first guy had been going to this club a lot, right?”

“That’s right.”

Newton looked thoughtful.  “Drugs.”

“What?”

“You said his roommate thought he might be doing drugs.  What if– what if he _was_ , just… not exactly the kind his roommate had in mind.”

“They’re getting the venom from someone at the club,” Tendo mused.

“Not just anyone,” Hermann replied.  “It would have to be someone with an interest in keeping the establishment running – likely someone that works there.  Otherwise I doubt they would have gone to the trouble of hiding what occurred.  They would just move to another venue and let the owners of the bar deal with the consequences themselves.”

“Hell, the whole place could be a front for this crap.”

“Looks like it,” Tendo replied.  “So I drove back over there and waited for awhile.  A bit before dawn, after the place closed, a guy came outta there with a really conspicuously sized garbage bag.  Not exactly subtle.”

Hermann felt nauseous.

Newton glanced at him and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.  “Did you follow him?”

“Yeah, he drove out to the edge of town where the warehouse district is and went into one of the buildings.  The place looked pretty rundown from the outside, but how much do you want to bet that’s where they’re doing their business?”

Newt gave Hermann a look that told him exactly how they were going to be spending their night.  He sighed wearily.

~

The warehouse they pulled up to looked perfectly unassuming from the outside.  It looked like every other warehouse in the area and a chill ran down Hermann’s spine when he sat there and thought too much about what probably went on in there, with all the neighboring businesses completely unaware of it.  There could easily be people in there, even now, doing God only knew what.

“We need a plan,” he said.

“If we get a little closer, I can probably tell if anyone’s in there.  Maybe we could wander over, act like we’re out for a walk.”

“Is that wise?”

“Probably not, dude, but do you have a better idea?  We can’t just sit here all night.”

He was right.  They could sit there and watch the comings and goings of the place for hours on end, but until they actually went inside, they weren’t going to know what was going on – not for certain.

Hermann took a deep breath.

Newt unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over to peck him lightly on the cheek.  “Just act casual.  We won’t look _that_ conspicuous.”  He pulled back slightly, but stayed close, a grin tugging at his face.  “And lucky for you, I’m the only one who can hear your heart pounding.  It’ll be okay, c’mon.”

~

Hermann tried – and managed, he hoped – to at least _look_ calm and collected as they approached the building, even though he wasn’t either of those things at the moment.  Newton’s arm was wrapped around his, their fingers entwined, and to the outside observer they probably looked like a perfectly normal couple going about their night.  Although Hermann doubted many people decided to take romantic strolls through the _warehouse district_.

Newton elbowed him lightly in the ribs as they walked.  “Dude, act natural.”

“I _am_ acting natural.”

“Yeah, right.”

As they neared the building Newton stopped and nodded towards a high point on the wall.  “There’s a camera.”

Hermann stared upwards thoughtfully.  “You could get up there and disable it.”

“Dude, I’m not Spider-Man.  Besides, if I go leaping at the camera, that’s probably going to be a pretty big tip-off, anyway.”  He paused, a confused look blossoming on his face.  “Or… not, because there isn’t anyone in there.”

“What?  Are you sure?”

“This close?  Yeah, I’m pretty sure.  I don’t hear anything in there.”

“Even so, we should be–”

Newton walked over to a nearby door and rattled the doorknob.

_Of all the…_  “What on earth do you think you’re doing?!”

“Going inside!”  

“The door is–”

Newt grasped the knob firmly and jerked it hard.  There was a sharp cracking, shrieking metallic noise as the knob broke free of the door.  The door itself was metal of some kind and didn’t seem bothered by the sudden absence.  It did, however, break the lock successfully and the door swung open when the vampire nudged it.

“For both our sakes,” Hermann muttered as he followed Newton inside, “I really do hope no one’s hiding inside, because the entire _city_ probably heard that commotion.”

“Well, unless they’re so super-stealthy that they breathe _totally_ silently and somehow have no heartbeats, I think we’re good.”

The warehouse was empty of any people who might have been working there previously, but much of their equipment remained – less than hygienic surgical instruments scattered all around, as well as overturned desks and chairs.  The place looked like a disaster zone.  It was as though they had tried to clean the place out quickly and in their haste had done a shoddy job of it – and what they had left behind was more than enough to paint a picture of what had taken place here.

He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting.  Obviously a place that facilitated the butchery of living, breathing _people_ wasn’t going to be a pleasant place.

Newton went to investigate what looked like a small office area towards the back, and Hermann’s own investigation led him to a room where there was a row of four metal tables.  The first thought that entered his mind when he saw the reddish brown stains that coated them was merely “rust,” but he knew better.  His second thought was he didn’t want Newton to see this.  Surely it would do nothing but stir up painful memories.

He turned to leave the room, and Newton was standing in the doorway, eyes wide.  He was staring at one of the tables in particular.  Whoever had been in charge of cleaning this room must have given up halfway through cleaning it, because table was not even remotely clean.  Even worse, it looked like it may have seen recent use.  The blood looked less aged than the faded stains on the others, and there was still a tray of surgical implements spread out on a nearby tray.

“Newton?”

The other man didn’t respond.  He took a few hesitant steps into the room, approaching the table, then stood and stared down at it.  He held so rigidly still that Hermann had to stare at him for a few moments to be sure that he was breathing – which he was, but only just barely, as though he were afraid to move or make a sound.

“I’m okay,” he said, finally.

Hermann went to his side.  “Are you?”

Newt looked up and blinked at him, letting out a shaky breath.  “Yeah, man.  We should just get out of here.  It doesn’t look like they left anything usef–”

“What the hell are the two of you doing here?!” a voice exclaimed.

They both spun around.  There was a man pointing a gun at them.  Hermann recognized him – it was the bartender from the club.  He looked very indignant, as though their breaking and entering was the greatest offense in the room when he and his accomplices had been _butchering_ people like animals.  His reaction almost would have been funny, if the entire situation hadn’t been so horrifying.

“We could ask you the same thing,” Hermann retorted, trying to ignore the fact that the man had a gun aimed roughly at his face.  “Do _you_ make a habit of visiting abandoned warehouses?”

"I get the feeling you and your little buddy there already know the answer to that."

Out of the corner of his eye, Hermann saw Newton bristle.  "I knew you were an asshole the other night, but I gotta admit I didn't think you were 'human chopshop' level of asshole."

"They're not human, though," the bartender replied casually, as if he were talking about the weather and not butchering people for profit.  "And neither are you.  Our cameras pick up on heat," he explained.  "Pretty handy for spotting the difference between a client and merchandise."

Newt made a noise that Hermann couldn't identify – something between a sob and a growl.

“Newton, don’t do any–”  Before he could finish the sentence, the vampire was on the move.

He snarled – a chilling, inhuman noise that Hermann had only ever heard him make a few times before.  He either didn’t hear Hermann’s protest or ignored it, but either way he didn’t seem interested in stopping.  When he put his mind to it, Newton could move _fast_ – faster, certainly, than any human could manage.  It wasn’t fast enough to dodge bullets, but then, he didn’t seem concerned about getting out of the way when the man pulled the trigger.

Hermann’s heart caught in his throat when Newton’s torso jerked with the impact of the first bullet, then the second, but he just kept moving forward and slammed into shooter, knocking him to the ground.  The gun went skittering across the floor.

“Where did you take them?  The vampires you were keeping here, where did they go?"

“We got rid of them,” the man wheezed breathlessly.

“I know that’s not true.  You’ve been milking them for venom, and you’d need them alive to keep doing it.  Where are they?”  He shook the man, hard.  

Fangs and thirst for blood aside, Newton was not a violent person and he certainly wasn't _homicidal_.  He was rattled and upset, and not thinking clearly.  He was letting his instincts get the better of him, and if he did something in the heat of the moment – even if it was to a foul man such as this – Hermann knew he would never forgive himself.

Hermann took a deep, shuddering breath and strode forward.  “Newton, stop–“

“Tell me where they are!”

“Or what, you’ll kill me?”

“Eventually, maybe.  If you’re lucky.  Maybe I’ll show you how it feels to have someone _remove_ pieces of your body while you’re still conscious.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Something in Newt’s low growl – or maybe his face – must have conveyed that he meant business, because the man faltered visibly at that.  “We weren’t getting venom from them.”

“You’re lying.”

“I-I’m not!  We haven’t been able to find anyone to _take_ venom from!  Chau told us you and Choi were off-limits, and Min skipped town months ago.  Until those Russians came along, there wasn’t anyone else.  No one we knew about, anyway.”

“Yeah, sure.  That explains the blood-covered tables, right?”

“We brought a few of the test subjects here, that’s it.  The venom was stuff Chau already had.  When we started running low, we tried to see if we could get more of it from the test group, but most of them never developed venom glands and the ones that did didn’t produce anything – t-they were dry.  The other organs were no good either, so we– we got rid of them.”

Newton had stopping growling and snarling and Hermann wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good sign or not.  He still didn’t have a clear view of his face, but something must have been evident on it because the man went from looking somewhat concerned to _extremely_ concerned.  

“They were going to die anyway!” he pleaded.  “The stuff– i-it doesn’t work, they would have–”  Whatever else the man had been about to say to attempt to justify his actions were cut off when Newton wrapped a hand around his throat.

The man struggled and tried to pry Newton’s fingers away, but it was no use.  He simply wasn’t strong enough.  When it became clear to him that getting Newton off of him wasn’t an option, he made a grab for his gun, but it was just out of range of his fingers.

Hermann wasn’t sure what to do.  He stood very little chance of stopping Newton by force.  Any of the methods he could think of to force him off the man were ones that would involve injuring him to do it, and that wasn’t something Hermann could justify – not after seeing the aftermath of what had gone on in this place.  Still, he couldn’t let him kill a man in cold blood.

He stepped closer.  “Newton, think about what you’re doing.”

“I am.”

“I’m not certain that you’re thinking about much of anything at the moment.”

Newton looked up at him, then, a wild look in his tear-filled eyes, fangs lengthened and visible as he spoke.  “Hermann, they _killed_ them.  They turned them into sick, pissed off monsters – cut them open and tortured them – then they _killed them_.  Like it was nothing.  Like– like they were animals.”

“Killing him won’t change that.”

He looked back down and swiped at his eyes with his free hand.  Then he slammed the man’s head against the floor with an audible crack.  

“Did you–”

Newt looked up at him, eyes wide and tired, but lacking the irrational rage that had been there a moment ago.  It was as though it had all bled out of him.  “I didn’t kill him.  I– I have to admit, I kinda wanted to, but I didn’t.  He’s not going to feel great when he wakes up, but he _will_ wake up.  Better than he deserves, probably, but…”

Hermann knelt down beside him.

“Dude, don’t–”

Hermann gave him a look.  “You’ve been _shot_.”

“It looks worse than it is.”

“You’ve been shot _several times_.”

“Hermann, calm down, geez.  It’s not _that_ bad.”  

He would have found that much more reassuring if Newt hadn’t been bleeding heavily all over the warehouse floor.  They both stood up with a degree of difficulty, and when Newton swayed on his feet Hermann instinctively reached out and grasped him by a forearm to steady him.  The other man blinked at him wearily and wrapped his fingers around his wrist.

"Newton–"

"Let's– let’s just get out of here and go home, okay?"

~

The ride home was relatively quiet.  Whenever the car jostled particularly hard, Newton would make a pained noise, and Hermann would glance at him out of the corner of his eye to make sure he was doing alright.  He didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore – or at least, not as heavily – but he looked pale and uncomfortable.

“Dude, quit staring at me.  I’m okay.”  He chuckled and side-eyed him.  “Might not be if we get in a horrific car wreck, though.”

"Are you sure?"

"That a car wreck would be bad?  Uh, _yeah_."

Hermann sighed heavily and slammed on the brakes.

Newton got thrown forward and caught himself on the dashboard.  "Oww, watch it!  Dude, you _really_ need to stop doing that.  Someone’s gonna end up driving up our tail-pipe."

Hermann sat back in his seat and glanced over at the other man.  The arm he'd braced himself with was trembling – Newton in general was trembling, and breathing hard.  The abrupt stop had clearly caused him some degree of pain, and Hermann felt a stab of guilt for doing it, but it was just further proof that he was understating his injuries.  Just because they weren't necessarily _fatal_ didn't mean–

"Hermann, look."  Newt peeled his shirt – which was now crusted with drying blood – off his skin and lifted it up.  Between the ink, the blood, and the poor lighting, it took a few minutes of squinting to see what was there – or rather, what _wasn't_ there.  There were no wounds, the skin was smooth.  "See?  Nothing.  I'm fine.  Now will you _please_ lighten up?  I don’t think this thing’s brakes can take much more abuse.”

Hermann loosened his grip on the steering wheel, fingers cramping, and sat there for a moment before stepping on the gas and continuing on.

~

Newton may have claimed to have healed from his injuries without any problems, but he was still clearly not feeling well when they got home.  He got into the elevator without complaint when Hermann led him in that direction, when just the day before he’d been avoiding the thing like the plague.  Back in November it had taken him some time to recover fully even when his wound had visibly healed – the internal damage had taken longer to heal.  Hermann worried that this might be a similar situation.

He disappeared into the bathroom once they got out of the elevator, and Hermann wearily headed to the bedroom to change out of his clothes - which he only just then realized had Newton's blood all over them - and changed into his pajamas.

"We seem to be running out of clothes that _aren't_ bloodstained," he muttered as he sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh.

A strange noise came from the bathroom.  

"Newton?"

There was no reply, and Hermann knew he had to have heard him.

He grabbed his cane and stood, walking towards the bathroom door.  "Newton?  Are you alright?  What are you doing in there?”

“Uh, nothing!”

Hermann heard a muffled noise of what sounded like pain, followed by a strange sound he couldn’t quite identify.  “It doesn’t _sound_ like ‘nothing,’ Newton.”

“I’m, uh, taking care of my gunshot wounds.  It’s no big deal.”

“You told me they had healed.”  More than that, he had _seen_ that they had healed.

“Yeah, they did.  They did, but the bullets were still… in there.”

He let that sink in for a moment, and suddenly the commotion coming from within the bathroom made sense.  “I’m coming in.”

“Dude, don’t!  It’s– it’s a mess in here.  I’m almost done, and I’m fine, so just– just go to bed, okay?”

Hermann ignored his protests and stood, moving towards the door.  The knob turned easily in his hand – unlocked.  He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.


	12. Chapter 12

The bullets had hurt a whole lot more coming out than they had going in.  Part of that was probably the fact that he’d been hyped up on adrenaline when they’d gone in and part of it probably had a little bit to do with him being really really bad at improvised bullet removal surgery.  He’d done it before, but it’d been over a decade so his skills were a little rusty.   

Even though he could feel the reopened wounds already starting to heal, he felt pretty torn up, and he knew the getting shot was only part of it.  He laid his head on his arm and winced when it pulled… something, somewhere.  He was too tired to worry about it.  It’d sort itself out on its own.

Then he heard the doorknob turn.  He should have locked it – he’d _thought_ he’d locked it – but he hadn’t.   _Crap_.

He bolted upright and scrambled to try to clean things up.  He tossed a hand towel over the bowl he’d dropped the bullets into, realized there was some blood – a _lot_ of blood, actually – still smeared all over the place.  He grabbed his shirt off the floor – it was pretty much ruined, anyway –and tried to wipe some of the mess up with it, but it just smeared and then suddenly Hermann was standing in the doorway.

The look of horror on his face as he took in the sight of the bloody bathroom would’ve almost been funny in any other situation, but as it was he kind of looked like he wanted to pass out.  “Are you alright?”

Newt took a deep breath and nothing hurt _too_ bad, so he was pretty sure he’d managed to get everything out.  “Yeah.  Yeah, I’m okay.  Uh, they’re healing okay, it’s just the whole… digging out the bullets thing that kind of… hurt.  A bit.”

He was still staring, and his heart was pounding so loud Newt was pretty sure the whole neighborhood could hear it – vampire senses or not.

“Hey, I’m–”

Hermann stalked over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, and any other time Newt might have joked and flirted about getting manhandled, but he could see how worried he was, so he didn’t say anything – he let him look him over.  

“See?  I’m fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the bullets were still–”

“Because I knew you were going to react like– well, exactly how you’re reacting now.  It wasn’t a big deal.”

“I could have helped.”

Newt snorted, and sighed when he saw the hurt – and slightly angry – look on Hermann’s face.  “Dude, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the thought, but you and I both know how squeamish you are.  It was going to be ugly enough without adding barf to the equation.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

“Yeah, and you’re looking a little green around the gills, man.”

He was actually handling it way better than Newt would have expected.  He’d been freaked out when he first came in, but he seemed to have calmed down a lot once he realized Newt was more or less alright.  He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed that Hermann was handling it so well or sad that he was starting to get used to the sight of blood and gore.  

“You don’t look much better,” Hermann pointed out.  “Get undressed.”

“Whoa!  Normally I’d be leaping at the chance, dude, but it’s been a pretty long night–”

The look on the other man’s face was a combination of exasperated and amused.  “I _meant_ we should get you cleaned up.”

“Right.  That’s–  I figured that’s what you meant.”

“Of course you did.”

~

Hermann scrubbed at a particularly stubborn patch of blood that had dried and clung tenaciously to Newt’s skin.

“Ouch, don’t scrub my skin off!”

Hermann’s lips twitched.  “It’ll grow back.”

“Oh, ha ha, very funny.  Let’s tease the guy with the super-healing.”

The other man paused and gave him a concerned look.  “…Are you in any _actual_ pain?”

He shook his head.  “Nah.  The holes are already healing up again, see?”  He glanced down and poked at his shoulder with a finger.  The hole had closed up, and even though it was still kind of _visible_ , it didn’t really hurt – it sort of tingled in that sensitive “new skin” kind of way.

Hermann lightly brushed a finger across an inkless spot of skin just below his ribs. 

“How many would it have taken to cause serious damage?"

“Pfft, _way_ more than this.  Don’t worry about it.”

“I do worry,” Hermann said softly.

Newt looked up at him.  The look on his face broke his heart.

Sometimes he forgot that Hermann had found him nearly dead in an alley a few months back.  Well, he didn’t really _forget_ , but so much of it was a hazy blur half the time and a "oh God I almost died" blur the other half of the time.  He didn't stop to think about how hard it must've been on Hermann.  Hermann had mother-henned and fussed over him a lot for awhile, then things had eventually gotten back to normal – well, as normal as things ever got – and now with this…

“I know, but look, you don’t have to worry about me.  On a scale of one to ten, with one being a papercut and ten being, I don’t know, ‘oops I’ve been staked,’ this was like a… two.”

“You rank getting shot several times just slightly above a _paper cut_?”

“...Okay, so maybe a three.  Four, tops.  Anyway, I don’t plan on testing my bullet threshold any time soon, trust me.”

“I would prefer that you never do.”

“‘Never’ works for me.  I’d be totally happy to never get shot again.”

They stood there in relative silence for awhile, Hermann scrubbing at the last few patches of blood that dotted Newt’s chest.

“Are you alright?” Hermann asked.

“Dude, I told you–”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He knew what he meant.  He could still see that table when he closed his eyes – could still smell the blood – and it overlapped with the memory of fresher bloodstains and fresher scents and a room full of glorified back-alley surgeons staring down at him and his exposed insides like he was a frog in a high school science class, but he didn’t want to tell Hermann any of that.  It would just make him worry more, and it wouldn’t _help_ anything.  It wasn’t something that could be fixed.

So instead, he just said, “It’s been a rough week.”

Hermann wrapped his arms around him and held him close, and Newt let himself be held there.  The water was warm, and Hermann was warm, and it was a pretty nice scenario if he ignored the blood circling the shower drain.  One of Hermann’s hands brushed across the back of his shoulder, where one of the bullets had exited.  His skin lit up at the sensation and he tried to hide his reaction, but Hermann noticed and withdrew his hand quickly.  

“Did that hurt?”

“No,” Newt replied with a laugh.  “It just tickled really, _really_ bad.  New skin’s always extra sensitive.”

“Hmm.”  Hermann leaned down and gently kissed the place where the bullet had entered his shoulder.  

 _That_ was more than just ticklish, because Hermann’s mouth was pretty awesome even when it wasn’t pressed against sensitive areas.  His teeth lightly grazed his skin, and Newt couldn’t stop himself from making a really indecent noise.  Hermann’s mouth moved upward, kissing and sucking along Newt’s neck and that was even _worse._

Hermann cupped Newt’s face in his hands.  Newt instinctively nuzzled his palm, lips brushing across his wrist.  There was still a bit of scar tissue there from where he’d bit him back in November, and beneath it he could feel and hear the blood pumping through his veins.  

“Are you hungry?” Hermann asked softly.

It had been just a faint tickle at the back of his brain earlier but now that exhaustion and blood loss was catching up to him and Hermann’s pulse was fluttering against his mouth, yeah, he was definitely hungry.  It was taking a lot of effort not to just _bite_ , but that wasn’t something he was going to just do without warning or asking first.  

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Then it’s a good thing I came along, isn’t it?  Otherwise you probably would have dallied in here for the rest of the night and gone to sleep still hungry.”

“I wouldn’t have _dallied_ ,” Newt complained.

“I most likely would have found you asleep in the bath tub.”

“That happened _once_ , oh my God.”

“Once since we’ve known each other, perhaps, but I find it hard to believe that it was the only time in your _entire life_ that it’s happened.”

Newt laughed, “Oh yeah?”  

He nipped at Hermann’s wrist playfully. fangs lightly scratching the surface of his skin.

The look on Hermann’s face was fondly amused.  “Drink as much as you need to.”

Biting outside of the bedroom – or, okay, occasionally other rooms – was always a bit tricky.  It was one thing to sink your teeth into someone when they were riding an endorphin high and caught up in the moment and a totally different thing to do it without any kind of build-up or foreplay.  It took finesse to make a bite like that pleasant and not just painful and uncomfortable.  

He sucked and teased at Hermann’s skin and grinned at the way Hermann’s pulse thumped against his lips.  Then he sank his fangs in.  Hermann’s wrist opened and blood filled Newt’s mouth.  It was hot – hotter than the shower water, even – and it felt so good sliding down his throat that he couldn’t help the low growl that rumbled in his chest.  

He didn’t drink a lot.  Hermann was already pretty tired and if he ended up passing out from blood loss, getting him out of the shower and to bed was going to be tricky.  He pulled his mouth away and gave the bite a parting lick.

“As pleasant as this shower has been, we should get out and get dried off,” Hermann said.

Newt licked the blood off his lips then nuzzled Hermann’s cheek.  “I’ve got a better idea.”

~

Hermann settled back against him with a satisfied sigh.

“Comfortable?”

“Mmm.”

When Newt had first moved in, he’d made it a point to get a bath tub big enough to comfortably fit the both of them.  Hermann enjoyed warm baths _way_ more than he let on – especially on days when his hip was bugging him worse than usual – but neither of the tubs at their old places had been big enough for Newt to get in with him.   _This_ one, though…

He’d filled the tub as full as he could without risking it making a huge mess when they tried to climb back out of it.  He’d gotten the water about as hot as the two of them could stand, so it would probably last them a while before getting cold.

“Do you think it’s over?”

Newt didn’t have to ask what he meant.  “You mean, like, _over_ over or just ‘not our problem anymore’ over?”

“Either one, I suppose.”

“Well, I kinda doubt they’ll keep their operation local, not after their warehouse getting compromised.  They– they might pick up again somewhere else, but…  I dunno.  Hopefully they’ll decide the whole thing’s more trouble than it’s worth and call it quits.”

“So it’s over.”

“Probably, yeah,” Newt replied, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.  “Or as over as it’s ever gonna be.  There’s always going to be someone out there who thinks vampires are a good business opportunity.”

“We can’t just let this go, can we?”

“Hermann, they could be halfway across the country by now.  Unless you wanna go on a cross-country road trip to hunt them down, I don’t really know what else we can do.”

“They don’t necessarily know that we know that the club is related to their operations.”

Newt frowned.  “What do you mean?”  

“They may have left something behind there, especially if that’s where they were peddling their… product.  There could be some record of what they were doing.”

“Maybe.”

“We could go have a look.  We don’t know for certain that there aren’t _more_ potential victims of this.  If we could find some sort of record of who they were selling to, perhaps we could prevent more deaths.”

“That hasn’t really worked out too well for us so far, Hermann.”

“That doesn’t mean we should stop trying.”

They laid there in silence for awhile, the only sound the soft sloshing of the water around them and their breathing.

“If they _do_ keep any info there, it’s probably all digital – _and_ their computer system’s probably kept pretty secure.  They wouldn’t just leave something like that where any random person could wander in and take a look.”

“Believe it or not, Newton, but I _do_ know my way around computer systems and their security measures.”

“You do?  Wait, when you say you know your way around ‘security measures’ do you mean like in a ‘I know how to get into a computer when someone accidentally locks themselves out of it’ or in a ‘I can hack into the Pentagon’ sort of way?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m being totally serious.  If you’re secretly some kind of master hacker I think I should know, I mean, _I_ came clean about the whole vampire thing.”

Hermann snorted softly and sank deeper into the water, laying his head on Newt’s shoulder.  After a few minutes his breathing evened out, his heartbeat slow and steady.

Newt kissed him gently on the forehead.  “Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“You probably shouldn’t fall asleep in the tub, dude.  Weren’t you just lecturing me about this?”

“I don’t intend to,” he murmured.

“Yeah, right.”

Before long, Hermann was out like a light, but he was propped against Newt in a such a way that he was _pretty_ sure he wasn’t going to go sliding too far down into the water.

Newt tilted his head back against the edge of the tub and closed his eyes.  He figured he could let Hermann snooze for a bit.  He might end up a little pruny, but aside from that he’d probably be fine.  It felt good to just lay there for a few minutes and take a breather.  If Newt’s brain hadn’t been hard-wired for daytime sleep, he probably would’ve been ready to pass out, too.

~

Once the water started to get cold, Newt figured that was probably their cue to get out.  He felt bad about having to wake Hermann up, but lifting him up and out of the tub would’ve been a little tricky, even with vampire strength and reflexes on his side.  Besides, they both needed to dry off.  

“Hermann.”

“Mmm.”

“You’re not _asleep_ are you?” Newt teased.

“No,” Hermann replied groggily.  “…What time is it?”

“Dunno, but we’ve been in here awhile.  We should probably get out of here before we turn into total raisins.”

~

Hermann only woke up as much as was necessary to get out of the bathtub, towel himself off, and make it to the bed.  Newt was pretty sure his eyes were shut before his head even hit the pillow.  He pulled the covers up around Hermann’s shoulders and was ready to head to the living room, when Hermann lifted his head up off the pillow.  

Okay, so not _totally_ asleep.

Hermann squinted drowsily at the clock on the wall.  “Newton, it’s nearly dawn.”

“Yeah, but–”

“Come here.”

Newt didn’t have to look at the clock to know he was right.  He could feel it tickling at the back of his brain, like a fog creeping in.  Then another fourteen hours of sleeping like a coma patient.  It’d be nice to spend some of it with Hermann instead of face-planting onto the couch – or the floor – in an hour.

He walked back over to the bed and crawled under the covers beside Hermann.

“I wish you would come to bed more often,” Hermann muttered sleepily.  “This bed _was_ bought with the intention of holding two people.”

“Yeah, but our sleeping schedules don’t really overlap often.”

“All the more reason to seize the opportunity when it presents itself, don’t you think?”

“Fair point, but I’m not exactly the cuddliest person when I’m asleep.”

Hermann suddenly looked more awake than he had a couple minutes ago.  “Newton, if you mean to tell me you have been _deliberately_ avoiding falling asleep in this bed–”

“Dude, people have thought I was _dead_ before.”

“Yes, and none of those people shared a bed with you, as far as I know.  I’ve slept with you multiple times, and at no point have I felt like I was sleeping next to a corpse.”

Newt stared at the ceiling and wondered if he should really be asking a question he wasn’t sure he actually wanted an answer to.  “Do you ever wish I was human?”

At that, Hermann sat up and gave him an offended look.  “Do you ever wish _I_ was a vampire?”

“Huh?  No!  Why would you even–”

“Then why would _you_ ever think I’d rather have you as anything but what you are?”

“That’s different.  There are… things, y’know?  Don’t you ever want someone who snores in your ear all night or wakes you up with really bad morning breath?”

“Yes, of course,” Hermann replied dryly.  “That sounds wonderful.  Clearly I didn’t realize what I’ve been missing out on.”

“Come on, you know what I’m trying to say, Hermann.  I… there are things I can’t do – for you, or– or with you.  Don’t you ever think about any of them?”

“I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t, but if any of those things were things I felt I couldn’t live without, would I be here with you?”

“I… guess not.”

Hermann settled back against him and laid his head on Newt’s chest.  “At any rate, if your brush with vampirism had never happened, it’s unlikely that we would have ever met at all.”

Newt grinned.  “I don’t know about that, dude.  I would’ve still been teaching, probably.  We could’ve ended up on the same campus at some point or – I dunno – met at a conference or something.  I mean, I’d be older.  Well, I mean– I _am_ old, but I’d actually look my age.  I’m pretty sure the silver fox edition of Dr. Newt Geiszler would’ve still been able to sweep you off your feet, though.”

“Yes, you would have won me over with your snoring and your morning breath.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“While I’m sure I wouldn’t have stood a chance against any hypothetical other version of you, I’m perfectly content with the one I have.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

He was feeling warm and fuzzy – and at least part of that was the sun creeping up over the horizon, but the line of conversation and Hermann cuddled up close beside him was probably helping it along.  His eyes drifted shut.

“Strangely enough,” Hermann replied, sounding as sleepy as Newt felt, “I’ve never had an overwhelming desire to have someone snore in my ear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was pretty much 100% fluff and I regret nothing. They definitely needed it. 
> 
> Just a few more chapters to go!
> 
> Also, bravinto drew some [art](http://decadentmousse.tumblr.com/post/102644135871/the-next-chapter-of-fangs-and-frappuccinos-is-up) for this chapter! <3


	13. Chapter 13

It was well after noon before Hermann woke up.  The sun was high in the sky and Newton was fast asleep, as was to be expected.  His arm was wrapped around Hermann’s shoulders.  He could have wiggled free fairly easily – unlike some of the times Newton had fallen asleep on top of him in the past – but he found himself reluctant to do so.

“You’re a terrible influence on my sleeping habits,” Hermann said softly.  Newton didn’t answer, of course, but he hadn’t expected him to.

~

That night, they left the loft early to get to the night club before it opened for the evening.  There was no guarantee that the place would be _completely_ empty, of course, but it was their best chance at getting in and out unseen.  Hermann could only hope it would go a bit smoothly than their trip to the warehouse had.

“There’s no one in there.”

“Are you sure?”

Newt gave him a look.  “Okay, so the guy last night got the jump on us, but only because I was kinda distracted when he slipped in.  It’s _not_ going to happen again.”

“You can’t fault me for being a bit cautious.”

“I promise I’ll keep an ear out this time – two ears, even.  I’ll even keep a look-out when you’re working your computer magic, if you want.  If we’re quick, no one’ll ever even know we were there.  Odds are the asshole from last night is still nursing his concussion, so he probably hasn’t gotten around to telling anyone what happened yet.  Which means nobody has any reason to be here this early.  ...Probably.”

“Probably?”

Newt shrugged.

~

They broke in through one of the side entrances – the same one, in fact, that Hermann had come out of the other night when the vampire had killed her companion.  The area where the man had died had been virtually drenched in blood at the time, but not a spot of it remained now.  Whoever had been tasked with cleaning it up had been very thorough.  If he hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, he never would have been able to tell anything had happened there at all.

“They were rather thorough in their cleaning.”

“Yeah,” Newt replied, making a face, “someone got real happy with the bleach.”

Hermann sniffed the air.  He didn’t smell anything, save for something malodorous wafting from the nearby dumpster.  “I don’t smell it.”

“Trust me, that’s probably a good thing.  Kinda makes me wish I didn’t have a nose.  Well, not a superhuman one, anyway.”

Once they were inside, it was evident that the place was empty.  Empty in a closed for business sense, not the unsettling sanitized way the warehouse had been the night before.  The difference was a bit jarring.  It was hard to believe this place was a front for the kind of activity that had taken place at the other location.  Which was probably what made it such an effective ruse.

“I think they’ve got an office up on the second floor there, towards the back,” Newt said, pointing.  “I saw a couple people go in and out of there the other night.  We better be quick, I think this place opens around ten, which means the people who work here’ll probably start coming in around nine, which means we have–” he paused for a second, brow furrowing, “–half an hour?  Probably?”

Hermann glanced at him in amusement.

Newt rubbed his face.  “Dude, I’ve only been awake for like fifteen minutes, you can’t expect me to function well this early in the night, okay?”

“Of course not,” Hermann replied fondly.

They made their way up the steps and did indeed find the room in the back to be a small office containing a few desks and computers, and a badly neglected looking coffee machine in the corner.  

Newton made a disgusted noise.  “See, that’s how you know for sure that these guys are evil.”

Hermann shook his head and walked over to one of the computers.  The network had some light security, but truthfully not nearly as much as he would have expected a criminal organization to employ.  It was almost as though they hadn’t anticipated anyone ever reaching their computers, which was either incredibly arrogant or incredibly stupid – or both.  Within minutes, he had gotten through what little security there was.  Most of the files he came across weren’t anything particularly noteworthy.

“Find anything?”

“Not yet.”

“I guess it’d be too much to hope for that they might name their files things like ‘shady organ theft records #1,’ huh?”

Hermann rolled his eyes.  

Newt tapped him on the shoulder.  “Hey, you’ve got this one pretty much cracked, right?  Maybe I can browse through files and you can get onto one of the other computers.  We might find something faster if we’re both looking.”

“Alright.”

Twenty minutes later, neither of them had found much.  Hermann was nearly ready to admit defeat, as disheartening as it was.  

"Shit!" Newton exclaimed.

“What is it?  What’s wrong?”

“Is this thing connected to a printer?”

“There’s that one over there,” Hermann gestured across the room.  “I would assume it’s connected.  Wouldn’t be much use otherwise.”

Newt clicked the mouse somewhat frantically and a few moments later the printer whirred to life, spewing out two sheets of paper.  The vampire was already more than halfway across the room before they were even done printing.

“We need to get out of here, now.”

“Newton–”

“We can talk in the car!  C’mon.”

Newton didn’t run, but he walked at a speed that most people wouldn’t consider leisurely.  Hermann scrambled to keep up.  Newt looked deeply concerned, which was more than enough reason for Hermann to be concerned.  

Newt pulled the car door shut behind him so hard once he got in, the handle creaked alarmingly.  Hermann had to nudge him in the ribs to remind him to put on his seatbelt.  

"Now that we're in the car, would you mind telling me what's going on?"

Newton tossed the sheaf of papers clutched in his hand at Hermann's lap and fumbled with the car keys for a moment before getting the car started.  

“What is this?”

“A list of who they’ve been selling to.”

“That’s–”

“ _Yeah._ Look at the bottom of the last page."

Hermann picked it up and lifted the first two pages, quietly scanning the list.  Bernard was on it, as well as a couple others that, if he were to guess, belonged to the other two recent vampires.  At the very bottom of the list was the name of the most recent customer.

"Raleigh Becket?" Hermann uttered in disbelief.

"Yeah," Newt replied as he pulled out of the parking space faster than was probably safe and peeled out onto the road, "that was my reaction too.  Well, that and 'holy shit, what the fuck?'"

Hermann didn't claim to know Mr. Becket very well, but he didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d go around purchasing things from criminals – much less something that, as far as he or anyone else knew, was a drug.  

“I don’t understand.  Why would he be involved in this?”

“Why would any of them, man?  They probably had their reasons.  As far as Raleigh goes, though, I have a couple ideas.”  

“Where are we going?”

“To the hospital.”

“To the– Newton, _why_?  Shouldn’t we go confront Raleigh about this?”

“It’s not _him_ I’m worried about.”

Hermann stared at him, uncomprehending.  “I don’t understand.  Who’s at the hospital?”

“His brother.”

~

The car screeched alarmingly as Newton pulled into a parking space in front of the hospital.  He was halfway out the car before Hermann had even unbuckled his seatbelt.  

“Newton, are you going to actually explain to me what’s going on, or am I supposed to guess?” Hermann asked as he shut the car door behind him.

“Awhile back, Raleigh and Yancy were on their way up to the mountains to, I dunno, snowboard or something.  They got in a car wreck on their way there.  Raleigh was banged up pretty bad, but made it out more or less okay, but Yancy…“

“…Didn’t fare as well.”

“Yeah, no.  He’s been in a coma ever since.”

Newt was all but running to the hospital entrance, which earned him a few suspicious glances from people entering and leaving.

“I doubt they’re going to let two strange men just walk in and visit a patient.”

“Hey, who are you calling strange?”

“Newton–”

“I know, okay?  I didn’t plan on just waltzing in there asking to get in there and see him.  I planned on… sneaking by when nobody’s looking to get in there and see him.”

“Of course, because you are a shining example of stealth.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I’ve lost count of how many doorknobs you’ve broken in the past week alone.”

Newt opened his mouth, shut it again, and shrugged.

They walked in the front door, and before Hermann could protest, the other man grabbed him by the arm and herded him off to the left and down a hallway before anyone at the front desk saw them.  Newton had mentioned multiple times that vampires tended to avoid hospitals on principle, even on the rare occasion when they were hurt badly enough to need medical attention, but Newt darted down hallways and around corners as though he knew exactly where he was headed.

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Kinda.”

“Kinda” turned out to be a veiled “no” and several elevator trips, rattled – but _not_ broken, Newton had pointed out in pride, as though it were a grand achievement – doorknobs, and several awkward run-ins with hospital staff later, they finally found Yancy’s room.  Hermann was relieved.  He wasn’t sure how many more times Newton’s patented “we’re looking for a bathroom” excuse would have held up under scrutiny.

Yancy Beckett certainly didn’t look like a man about to go on a bloodthirsty rampage.  He looked much like what Hermann would expect any coma patient to look like… unconscious and not particularly inclined to wake up any time soon.

Newt deflated somewhat.  “Okay, that… wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.”

“What _were_ you expecting?”

“Considering how our run-ins with the others have gone?  I dunno, an empty bed, screaming, blood…  Y’know, the usual.”

“Perhaps Raleigh hasn’t had a chance to administer it yet?”

Newt walked over to the bed and picked up Yancy’s chart and looked it over.  “According to this he started showing sudden signs of improvement a couple weeks ago – they were able take him off of life support a few days ago with no problems, and before that they’d pretty much figured he wasn’t _going to_ improve at all.”  He chewed his lip thoughtfully.  “According to that list we found, it was about two or three weeks ago when Raleigh bought the stuff.”

“That does seem like a suspicious coincidence.  Has he woken up, since then?”

“Not according to this, and I think Raleigh might’ve mentioned something if his brother had suddenly come out of his coma.”  He looked thoughtful.  “I would have _thought_ he’d have woken up by now if he was changing, but I’m… not actually sure what normally happens to someone if they get turned when they’re brain-dead.  If they’re bitten, I mean.”

“Could he be immune, somehow?”

“If he was, I don’t think it would’ve had _any_ effect at all, but something’s definitely going on.  I’m just not sure what.”  Newt hung the chart up back where he’d found it and put his hands on his hips.  “There’s gotta be more extensive records somewhere.  They monitor his vital signs and stuff twenty-four/seven, right?”

“I would assume so, yes.  What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we need to find those records.”  

~

Finding where they kept physical records in the hospital proved slightly less difficult than finding Yancy had been.  As luck would have it, the room they found containing the records was also what appeared to be a security room.  It had several live camera feeds as well as a collection of earlier camera footage.

“Jackpot!” Newt exclaimed.  “We really lucked out.”

“Unless of course a security guard comes in and catches us here.”

“I’m pretty sure they’re between shifts, otherwise someone would probably already be here.  We probably have enough time to get out of here before anyone notices us.”

“Pretty sure” and “probably” weren’t nearly certain enough to be reassuring, but all things considered this was likely one of the _less_ serious crimes either of them had committed recently.  It was a risk they had to take.

“I was hoping to find the readouts from the machines he’s been hooked up to, but these tapes might work if we can find footage of his room.”  He pointed at one of the screens.  “They’ve got a live feed of it there, so they probably keep the old stuff around, too.”

He started browsing the shelves full of tapes, scanning the labels on them carefully – presumably looking with a particular date in mind.

“Exactly how long has he been like this?”

“Since late September?  Early October, maybe.”

Hermann wasn’t a medical doctor, but a coma of that length didn’t seem like it boded well.  “That’s–”

“Not good,” Newt interjected with a sigh.  “Yeah, no, it isn’t.”  

Hermann had heard about Raleigh quitting Coyote Tango for personal reasons some months ago, but hadn’t known what the reasons were – it had seemed impolite to ask, so he hadn’t.  He hadn’t known Mr. Becket had a brother, or that anything had happened to him.  

“Aha!” Newton pulled out a tape and sat down in front of the line of monitors, sticking the tape into the VCR.  “I think this place has a lower budget than the college does.  Who still uses these things?”

The screen on the lower left flickered to life with an image not unlike the one above it of Yancy in his bed.  Newt hit the fast forward button periodically.

“What are we hoping to find?”

“Signs of activity, I guess.  Anything a guy in a coma shouldn’t do.  Like get up and walk around.”

They both watched the screen with interest.  The hours went by, however, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.  

Newt leaned back in his chair and stared at the security camera screens.  “Dude, I know I’m right about this.  If you had some mysterious miracle juice on your hands, would you use it on yourself or on your brother who’s been in a coma for nearly a year?”

“I don’t get along particularly well with my brothers, but I see your point.  Do you think he knew what exactly he was buying?”

“Probably not.  I kinda doubt any of them did.  Hannibal was never really big of full disclosure when it came to whatever he was selling.”

“That seems…”

“Shady?  Uh, _yeah_.  Guys like them aren’t really known for their open and honest business practices, dude.  Besides, people might be a little reluctant to buy if they knew they lining up to get turned into vampires.”  

_Or worse,_ Hermann thought grimly.  At least if the substance had the desired effect, its victims would have a chance at something resembling a normal life – instead they all died.  Until now.

He sighed softly and looked up. He had only glanced down for a moment, and when he glanced back up at the security monitor again, it took him a moment to realize.

“Er, Newton.”

The bed was _empty._   

Newton looked up from the computer screen, eyes widening.  “Wha– Where’d he go?!”

“I don’t know!” Hermann hissed.  “I glanced away for a moment and he was just… gone.”

“Well, this is just _great_.”

In the distance, Hermann could hear machines going off and the sound of frantic footsteps charging down the hallway outside.

“We need to find him,” he murmured.  “And quickly.  Before some well-meaning nurse or doctor stumbles across him–”

“–and gets their throat torn out, I know.”

They hurried out of the security room, mindful of the medical staff that were swarming the area.  Fortunately they seemed distracted enough by their missing patient that they didn’t notice two strange men emerging from a room they shouldn’t have been in.

“Do you think he’s changed?”  

“Probably.  Coma patients don’t just get up and walk away at random.”

They rushed around a corner and nearly ran into two people who were walking down the hall at a brisk pace.

Newton let out a startled squeak.  “What are _you_ guys doing here?”

“We could ask you the same,” the woman replied, glancing from Newton to Hermann curiously.

“I’d really love to stay and chat,” Newt replied, “but we’ve kinda got a… thing… we need to take care of.”

The man standing behind her had been silent up until then.  “As do we.”

“Newton, who–”

“Hermann, these are the Kaidonovskys.”

Something about the man had struck Hermann as familiar, and he suddenly realized where he had seen him before.  Newton had mentioned one of them had been at the club the other night, and Hermann had walked right by him none the wiser.  

“We have no time for games,” Sasha said.  “Let’s speak plainly.”

Newt put his hands on his hips.  “That would be nice, yeah.”

“I suspect we’re both here for the same reason.”

Hermann stared at them suspiciously.  “You’re aware of what’s happening?”

“We know enough.  At first we believed this was the work of a vampire with… indiscreet habits.  Once we realized what was actually happening, we decided to investigate further.  That led us here.”  She gave Aleksis a meaningful look then nodded.  “We will help you search.”

“And what are you gonna do if _you_ find him first?”

Sasha’s expression was grim.  “What must be done.”

Newt gaped at her.  “You’re gonna _kill_ him?”

“You have seen firsthand what these beasts are capable of.  They cannot be reasoned with.”

“These ‘beasts’ are people!” Hermann protested.

“Not anymore.”

“Y’know, there are people who’d say the same thing about us!” Newt fumed.  “If you go around killing innocent people just for being what they are, how are you any better than the people who chop us into little pieces and auction them off?”

Aleksis let out a deep, rumbling growl and took a step forward.  Sasha held up a hand and shook her head.

“Bold talk, coming from the man responsible for the current situation.”  At the look on Newt’s face, she added, “Yes, I know about your past dealings with the organ thief.”

“Look, if you wanna berate me for stuff that happened _twenty years ago_ , then fine, but maybe do it later when there _isn’t_ a hungry vampire on the loose, okay?  I’m trying to _fix_ this.  If we find him in time, I might be able to find a way to help him.”

“A risky proposition.”

“Come on, the guy has a _family_ –”

“So did the others,” Sasha interjected darkly, “and their victims.”

Hermann cleared his throat.  “Regardless of what we do once we find him, we’re far more likely to get to him before he hurts – or _kills_ – anyone if the two of you would stop bickering for a moment.”

“Your human is right,” Aleksis rumbled.

Newt bristled.  “He has a name, you know!”

“Enough!” Sasha interjected.  “He _is_ right.”

Hermann cleared his throat.  “Yes, _thank_ you.”

“We should split up,” Sasha suggested.  “If the four of us search separately, we have a better chance of finding him.”

“Yeah, okay.”

She gestured down the hallway.  “Aleksis.”

Aleksis nodded and took off in that direction, and Sasha gave Newton a lingering stare before heading off in the opposite direction.

Newt watched until she disappeared around the corner, then waited a few more minutes after that, before he muttered, “We need to find him before they do.”

“You don’t trust them?”

“I think they’ll do what _they_ think is right, and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

“Then we need to hurry.  Where do you think he would go?”

“Not sure.  I guess it depends on how coherent he is?  He might try to get out and go somewhere he thinks is safe, if he’s thinking halfway straight.”

“And if he isn’t?”

“Then we have a serious problem, because this place is _full_ of people.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time since the last update (four months?!), and I'm really sorry, guys. I've had a lot of stuff going on. I'm hoping to get the next few (last) chapters finished a bit more quickly.

In theory, vampires smelled, sounded, and in general were just _different_ enough that Newt should’ve been able to find Yancy pretty easily.  In theory.  In actual practice, though, finding a lone vampire in a busy – and frantic, now, thanks to their missing patient – hospital was like looking for a needle in a haystack.  It was even worse than the club had been.  Once he caught his scent he might have an easier time finding him, but he had to actually catch his scent first for that plan to work, and so far he wasn’t having much luck.

He was worried that he wasn’t going to find the guy until he heard horrified screaming in the distance or something.  He was actually a little surprised that he hadn’t attacked anyone yet.  The others hadn’t exactly been known for their self-restraint.  Then again, the others hadn’t laid in a coma for three quarters of a month, so he had no idea what to expect.  Maybe he’d face-planted in a corner somewhere two seconds after he got up, or maybe he’d wandered out of the hospital.

If he’d made it out of the hospital already, they were really going to be in some really deep shit.  There were a million directions he could wander off in and a million places he could go, and the odds of them finding him before he hurt someone at _that_ point would be slim to none – if they managed to find him at all.

Newt stopped in his tracks.  

Or he was staggering down the hallway towards a group of anxious nurses.  He could definitely be doing that.  

He rushed forward and seriously hoped Yancy was at least something approaching coherent.  “Hey there, guy, where do you think you’re going?”  He was careful to keep his voice down.  He did _not_ want the nurses to realize Yancy was just a couple feet away.  He needed to get him out of there, and fast.

Yancy either didn’t hear him or decided to ignore him – or was so out of it he didn’t know up from down.  Either way, if Newt couldn’t _talk_ him into coming along quietly, he was going to have to just make a grab for him and hope for the best.  He’d always heard older vampires were inherently stronger than younger ones, but he’d never found a whole lot of actual biological evidence to support that.  He’d figured it was just another one of those myths older vampires spread around to make themselves feel bigger and better.  Now he kind of hoped it was actually true, though, because Yancy was a hell of a lot bigger than him and if it came down to a vampire wrestling match, Newt was going to need that seniority advantage.

He raised his voice as much as he could without attracting anyone else’s attention, which wasn’t a whole lot.  “Hey, I’m talking to you!”  

Yancy stopped and turned around, and gave him a look of confusion, which was by default a lot better than the angry “I’m about to tear your throat out” look that Newt had half-expected to see.  So he tried again, hopeful.

“Yancy, you know me.  Newt.  You’ve met me a few times, remember?  I work with Raleigh at the coffee shop?”

He wasn’t seeing a whole lot of recognition, but as long as Yancy wasn’t wandering off in the direction of people, that was progress.  Newt just had to figure out how to steer him out of there.

“Your brother’s probably really worried about you.  Why don’t you come with me and I’ll take you to go see him, okay?”

Yancy didn’t respond, but he didn’t seem to object to Newt nudging him down the hallway and towards the back of the hospital, either, so he’d take what he could get.  He seemed – well, not _normal_ – but not really like the others had been.  Maybe Hermann was right – maybe Yancy had some weird kind of immunity, or maybe the dosage of the stuff hadn’t been high enough to turn him.  Maybe the stuff had did what Newt had always meant for it to do, maybe it stuck around just long enough to help Yancy along then had worked its way out of his system.  Either way, it probably wasn’t a great idea to let the hospital staff find him and poke and prod at him, so getting him out of there was priority one.  

Taking an elevator was probably a good way to get caught, so he led him towards one of the stairwells.  If he could sneak him down to the first floor, they could go out one of the emergency exits out the back and hopefully be out and gone before anyone spotted them.  Then he could call Hermann and they could regroup and figure out what to do next.

That plan worked out pretty well until he tried to get Yancy down the stairs.

“Come on, buddy, down the stairs.”

When Yancy hovered at the edge of the first step and refused to actually go down them, Newt nudged him again.

The other man growled, and the sound of it made the hairs on the back of Newt’s neck stand up.  For half a second, some corner of his brain wanted to growl back.

“Dude, just _chill_ , okay?”

That’s when Yancy turned around and lunged at him.  He managed to dart out of the way, but two seconds later Yancy was charging at him again, and this time he slammed into him successfully.

“Shit!”

Newt had half a second to realize he was going through the air before they both went tumbling down the stairway.  It wasn’t the first set of stairs Newt had been tossed down in his day, and at the rate he was going he felt like it probably wasn’t going to be the last, either, but it still sucked.  He was pretty sure he felt his arm break, and he smacked his head a couple times on the way down – it wasn’t anything that wouldn’t heal pretty fast, but it still didn’t feel great.

Once they’d landed and his head stopped spinning, Newt looked up and saw Yancy staggering to his feet and– he was actually moving away from Newt, not towards him, but that was no good, either.  

“Hey!”

Newt half-crawled after him and awkwardly threw himself at him.  They both went down again and Yancy _snapped_ at him – and Newt definitely spotted fangs that time.

_Okay, that’s it._

He punched him, hard.  Not as hard as he _could_ have, but he didn’t want to break the poor guy’s neck.  Yancy went down and, that time, didn’t get back up.  Once he was sure he wasn’t going to get back up any time soon, he slumped back onto the floor for a second.  There was a bloody smudge on the third step from the bottom that he was pretty sure was from his head.

He dug out his phone as he crawled to his feet and dialed Hermann’s number.

“Newton?”

“Hermann, bring the car around to the emergency exit on the west side of the hospital.”

“What?  Why?”

“Uh, I found Yancy.”

Hermann’s voice was worried.  “You did?  How is he?  Are _you_ alright?”

“I did, he’s unconscious, and yeah, I am.  I’m fine.”  

Sure, he was bleeding a little bit, but Hermann didn’t need to know that.  Hermann would hear the words “bleeding” and “fell down the stairs” and start worrying, and he didn’t need to.  Technically speaking, Newt was fine.  So was Yancy, probably – or as fine as he could be, given the circumstances – so he really, really wanted to get him out of the hospital before he woke up.

“Unconscious?  Did he pass out?”

“Uh, no.  I kind of… knocked him out.  He got a little bit cranky.”

“Cranky?”

“Hermann, it’s nothing.  I’ve got the situation under control, okay?  We just need to get him out of here.”

He still sounded worried.  “Yes, alright.  It won’t take me long to get to the parking lot from here.”

“Okay.  I’ll be waiting.”

“Whatever you’re currently doing, _please_ be careful?”

“Sure.”

Hermann hung up.

Yancy was a lot bigger than Newt, but lying comatose in a hospital bed for the better part of a year hadn’t done his muscle definition any favors.  Between that and Newt’s vampiric strength, he managed to half-carry half-drag him pretty easily.  The real trick was doing it _quietly_ , because the last thing he needed was someone hearing noises and getting curious.  No amount of smooth-talking was going to get him out of that one.

Hermann was just pulling up as Newt shimmied out the emergency exit with Yancy, and it was a good thing, too – he was starting to wake up.  Newt got the car door open and had barely gotten Yancy into the back seat before he started thrashing around.

Hermann turned in his seat.  “Newton, what in God’s name…!”

Newt had to crawl on top of Yancy to hold him down, and even then he was having trouble pinning him.  “Drive!”

“Wh–”

Yancy snarled and wrestled against him.  Newt’s head hit the ceiling of the car and he gave the other vampire a hard shove and growled at him warningly.

“Are you alright back there?!”

“Yeah, we’re just peachy, aren’t we, buddy?”

Hermann turned around in his seat again, eyes widening.  

“Hermann, stay in your seat, please?  I can handle getting knocked around a little.”

“Where are we going to take him?”

“Back to our place.”

If Hermann’s eyes bulged out of their eye sockets any farther they were probably going to go flying across the car and smack the rear window.  “What?  Where are we going to _put_ him?”

“We’ve got that, umm, that one room.”

“Which room?”

“Uh.”  It was really hard to think and form sentences when he had an angry, hungry vampire snapping and grabbing at him.

“That one on the first floor, that’s kinda behind the stairwell?  It used to be a utility closet back when it was an industrial building.  Pretty sure the door’s strong enough to hold him, and there aren’t any windows.”

“How are we going to get him into the room?”

Newt dodged Yancy’s hand as it flew at his face and elbowed him hard in the ribs.  “Hey!  Knock it off!”

“Newton–”

“Hermann, just let me worry about it, okay?  Get us back home in one piece and I’ll be able to get him into the room.”  

“What if we get pulled over?”

“Why would we get pulled over?”

“Because you are _wrestling a man_ in the back seat of the car!  Violently!”

Yancy tried to shake him off again, and when that didn’t work, he tried to sit up with Newt still on top of him.  Newt punched him, hoping to maybe knock him out, but he didn’t have any luck this time.  It didn’t do much – if anything it just seemed to piss him off more.

He could still feel Hermann staring.  He glanced up and gave him a reassuring grin.  “Piece of cake, man.”

~

Yancy had calmed down a little by the time they reached the loft.  He still wasn’t coherent, but at least he’d finally seemed to have taken a hint and stopped trying to toss Newt across the car, so that was something.

“Stay in the car while I get him into the closet.”

“How are you going to get him in there?”

“Uh, I’ll manage.”

Yancy growled.

“Look, just stay in the car until I come back out, okay?  I don’t– I don’t want you to get hurt if he gets loose before I get him locked in there.”

Wrangling Yancy into the building and into the supply closet was actually a lot easier than Newt expected it to be.  He must have used up most of his energy with that stunt back at the hospital.  He wasn’t exactly _agreeable_ about it, but Newt managed to get him most of the way just by lightly nudging him.

Most of the way.

“In you go, buddy.”

Yancy swayed on his feet slightly, but refused to go into the closet.

To be fair, _he_ probably wouldn’t be too eager to voluntarily get locked in a closet, either.  Assuming Yancy was even lucid enough to realize where he was going which… might’ve been assuming a lot.

“If we all make it through tonight in one piece, I just want you to know I’m really sorry about this, okay?”

He had no idea if Yancy understood or if he would have responded if he had, because he didn’t give him the chance.  He gave him a really hard shove, and the second he teetered over the threshold of the closet, he slammed the door shut and locked it.

On the other side of the door, Yancy snarled and growled.  

~

Ten minutes later, upstairs, Newt rummaged around in the fridge, grabbing as much blood as he could spare without leaving himself high and dry before his next shopping trip.  

“What are you doing?”

“We have a hungry vampire downstairs, remember?  Whatever else we’re gonna do, we need to make sure he doesn’t starve to death or anything, first.  We got to him before he had a chance to snack on anyone.”

“Thank God for that,” Hermann muttered wearily.  “If you hadn’t found him when you did–”

Newt peeked over the top of the refrigerator door.  Hermann looked tired and worried, and it made him want to stick him in a car or on a plane or _something_ until this whole thing finally blew over, but he knew Hermann wouldn’t do it.  Besides, they’d agreed to do this together, right?  After all this was over, though, maybe he’d take him somewhere.  He felt like they could both use the vacation.

“I _did_ find him, though, so it’s okay.  We’ve got it under control.”

“For the moment, at least.”  He gestured at Newt.  “Are you sure you're alright?”

“Huh?”  Newt scratched his head and felt dried blood flake off of his scalp.  “Oh, this?  This healed like two seconds after it happened.  Don’t worry about it.”

He finished grabbing all the bottles he needed out of the refrigerator and nudged the door shut with his hip.  

“That’s a rather large amount of blood.”

“You’ve _seen_ how hungry the others were, right?”

“Is that… usual, or a quirk of this particular strain?”

If it were anyone else, Newt would’ve been really tempted to lie, but this was Hermann.  “It’s–- it’s pretty normal.  The hunger’s pretty bad in the beginning.”

“Yes, but new vampires don’t typically go around murdering people, do they?”

“Well, _no_.  Usually there’s other vampires around to help them out and learn to control themselves.”

“You were on your own and you didn’t murder anyone.”  It wasn’t a question.  It wasn’t even a question disguised as a not-question, because Hermann didn’t even bat an eye when he said it.  There wasn’t any doubt there.  

“No, I didn’t, but I _could_ have.  Pretty easily.  The hunger’s intense, and you have all these urges.  Add to that, these guys don’t process anything right, so they just keep eating and eating.  They're like vampires on steroids.”

“Then what good will feeding him do?”

“It’ll buy us time.  Besides, we don’t know for sure what’s going on with him.  Honestly, so far he hasn’t acted much different from any regular baby vampire.  Maybe we’ll feed him and he’ll be fine.”

“Do you really think so?”

Newt laughed.  “Not really, but it’d be nice, right?”

He nearly dropped the bottles almost five times before he even reached the elevator.  Hermann finally took an armful of them from him with a fond sigh.

“So much for vampiric dexterity,” Hermann teased.

“I’m _plenty_ dextrous,” he snorted, “but I’ve only got two arms, dude.”

The elevator ride down was smoother than any other trip down it he’d taken since he moved in.  In retrospect, he was a little embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed the gears were getting ready to jam.

Once the elevator opened, it was pretty much a straight shot to the room he’d locked Yancy in.  It might’ve just been his imagination, but the door looked like it was bent in a few places.

“Are you _sure_ that door hold him?”

“Uh, sure.”

Hermann gave him a dubious look and Newt couldn’t blame him.  He didn’t want to worry him, but he _wasn’t_ totally sure that the door would hold him, but where else were they going to keep him?  If that door wasn’t going to hold him, none of the doors in the building were.

“It’ll probably hold him.  Besides, he’s bound to wear himself out soon.”

Hermann gave him a look.  “Newton, what _are_ we going to do?  Do you have a plan beyond feeding him?”

“One thing at a time, man.  Hold onto those for a sec, while I get the door open.”

Hermann didn’t ask him if it was safe for him to be down there with the door unlocked and nothing but Newt standing between him and a very hungry vampire, but Newt could tell he was worried.  He’d be crazy not to be, considering he’d nearly gotten eaten a few nights ago.

As long as he didn’t open the door too wide, Newt was pretty sure he could keep Yancy from getting loose.  Even if he did get loose, he was _not_ going to get a chance to hurt Hermann.  Newt didn’t really want to have to do anything drastic, but he would if he had to.

The room on the other side of the door was suspiciously quiet.  Yancy was huddled in a corner, and he snarled when Newt came in, but didn’t move.  Was he scared?  Newt wasn’t really sure if he had the presence of mind to be, but he also knew the first couple of days of vampirism were pretty disorienting.  Whatever the case might be, things would go a lot more smoothly if Yancy stayed in his corner until Newt came and went.  

“You need to eat something– well, you need to drink something.  So I’m just going to leave these here for you, okay?”  

Yancy didn’t respond, so Newt just laid the bottles on the floor a few feet away from him.  

“Hey, Hermann, can you come over to the door and hand me the rest of those bottles?”  He edged backwards and nodded when the door cracked open and Hermann’s face appeared.  “Don’t open it too wide.  Just hand them to me through the crack.”

When Hermann’s hand reached into the room, Yancy lifted his head and scented the air.  

“Hey, don’t get any ideas, pal,” Newt warned.

He tensed up, half-expecting Yancy to attack, but he didn’t.  He didn’t even try to follow him out of the room.  He was picking up one of the bottles as Newt pushed the door shut.  

Hermann let out a relieved sigh.  “Now that that’s taken care of, what’s our plan?”

“Well, I got a few licks in back there.  I think I could probably get a big enough blood sample from the inside of the car to take back to the lab and take a look at it.”

“You didn’t have much luck learning anything from the others.”

“True, but now that we know what’s actually going on and we have more than dead bodies to work with… it might give me more to go on than I had before.  It’s like you said, man – we have to do something.  We gotta at least try, right?”

Hermann nodded.  “In the meantime, I suggest we inform his brother.”

Newt stared at him.

Hermann stared back.  “We are going to tell him.”  

It wasn’t a question.  It was also a really terrible idea.

“What are we gonna tell him, Hermann?  ‘Hey, man, we found your brother, by the way you accidentally turned him into a vampire, good job!’?”

“That wasn’t precisely what I had in mind, but we have tell him _something_.”

“Why?  Dude, we’re not even sure if he’s gonna make it through the night or not.”

“All the more reason to tell him.”

“Hermann–”

“Newton,” Hermann’s tone was sharp and serious, and it stopped Newt dead in his tracks.  “Several people have died, and each time you and Tendo have gone to great lengths to bury all evidence of it.”

“That’s–”

“I understand.  I understand that it’s important for the general population not to learn that vampires exist.  I understand that it’s important that they don’t know vampires have been responsible for this recent string of killings.  However, I also understand that those people who died had families.  Families that will never know what happened to them.”

He had a point.  It wasn’t a point Newt _liked_ , but it was a good one.  He just wasn’t sure where to even begin.  How was he supposed to bring something like that up?  Besides, the average person didn’t just nod and smile agreeably when confronted with the reality of vampires.  Hell, even _Hermann_ had scoffed, then when he’d realized Newt wasn’t joking, he’d _ran_ , and sure that had worked out alright in the end, but Hermann was a level-headed guy.  Raleigh was hot-headed, and also a lot bigger than Newt.  Even with vampirism to level the playing field, Newt didn’t want to be in arm range when he said, “Hey, we’ve got your brother locked in our closet.”

He ran a hand through his hair and pulled out his cell phone.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Hermann said.

“Uh huh,” Newt muttered.  “I feel better already.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Come on, dude.  Pick up.”

Hermann could tell Newton wasn’t happy about having to make the call, but it had to be done.  Breaking delicate news wasn’t exactly his strong point.  Hermann would have done it himself, but he barely knew Raleigh or Yancy.  As far as he knew, Newton wasn’t especially close to either of them, but he was still a friendly and familiar face, at least.  Maybe that would count for something.

Newt’s voice wavered nervously.  “H-hey, man, I think I know where your brother might be.”  He glanced at him and mouthed silently, “voice mail,” before continuing.  “Look, call me back when you get this message, okay?  The situation’s kinda urgent.”  He paused and quickly added, “Uh, this is Newt, by the way.”

He hung up.

“How often does he check his phone?”

“On breaks, between shifts, when he gets off of work…”  He put his phone away and laughed.  “One of those times you kind of _wish_ your co-worker was the ‘dicks around on the phone every five minutes’ types, right?  But he’ll get it.  It might just be a few… hours… if they’re busy over there.”

It was going to be a very long few hours, if that was the case.

~

Raleigh didn’t call Newton back.  Instead, he showed up on their doorstep nearly two hours later.

Hermann peered out a window and glanced down at their front door.  There Raleigh stood, looking equal parts concerned and determined.  As if he could convince the door to open for him if he looked intimidating enough.

“Newt!  You up there?!”

“He seems a bit agitated.”

Newton snorted loudly.  “Gee, you think? We’ve got his brother locked in a closet _downstairs_ , Hermann.  Well, there’s no turning back now.  You’re the one who wanted me to call him.”

Hermann let the curtain fall shut.  “It’s the right thing to do.”

“I know, I know.  I’ll keep that in mind when he tries to strangle me.”  He headed towards the stairs.  “Uh, wait up here, just in things get ugly.”

“Ugly?”

“Who knows, man?  He’s twice my size and he’s probably gonna be a little pissed.”

“And you are twice as strong as him, despite all that.  You have a responsibility to keep things civil.”

“Dude, if you give me the ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ speech, you’re never, ever getting laid again.”

“Newton.”

Newt paused on his way toward the stairs.  “Yeah?”

“If I were you I’d refrain from mentioning the part where we’re keeping his brother locked in a closet.  For now, at least.”

The other man rolled his eyes and disappeared down the stairwell.  

Hermann let out a nervous huff of air.  He had just decided to settle down onto the couch for a few moments when he heard the door downstairs slam shut, followed by two very hostile sounding tones.  On the one hand, Newton had told him to stay upstairs.  On the other hand, Newton was hardly the best voice of reason under pressure, and it might help to have a cooler head involved.  

He wasn’t worried about Newton’s safety, given his resilience to standard forms of injury, nor was he particularly worried that Newton might end up hurting Raleigh, but regardless, a fight – even just a verbal one – was the last thing they needed to add to an already volatile situation.

He made a break for the lift.  It was faster than using the stairs, and ironically he felt far more comfortable using it since it had been repaired – despite Newton’s lingering misgivings.  It wasn’t long before he could hear bits of the conversation taking place on the first floor.  Although it was sounding dangerously close to an argument.  

“You said you knew where Yancy was.  I barely just found out he was _missing_ in the first place.  What’s going on, Newt?”

“Funny, I could ask you the same thing.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“I’m talking about whatever you’ve been dosing your brother with for the past several weeks!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Hermann grimaced.  Newton was being about as tactful as a sledgehammer.  The door finally slid open with a groan, revealing Raleigh standing very close to Newt, practically looming over him while Newton bristled in irritation.

“Okay, no, let’s try that again.  Tell me what you gave him.   _Now_.”

“Where’s my brother?”

“You’re not seeing him until you tell me what you did!  In detail.”

“I’m not telling you _anything_ until you tell me what the hell is going on!”

“You really wanna do this?”

Raleigh’s jaw was set stubbornly.  “Yeah, I really wanna do this.”

Newt’s eyes were burning and the tips of his fangs were visible as he spoke – though Raleigh didn’t seem to notice.  “What kind of _idiot_ ,” he jabbed Raleigh’s chest with a finger, “buys some weird substance he knows nothing about and _injects it_ into his own brother because, hey, ‘Some shady guy running a black market operation out of a night club told me it was okay!  What could possibly go wrong?’”

Hermann strode out of the lift purposefully.  “Newton–”

“He was lying in that bed for months, wasting away,” Raleigh argued.  “He wasn’t getting better, and he wasn’t _gonna_ get better.”  

“Yeah, sure, he’s a lot better off now.”

Raleigh’s jaw twitched.  Then, without any other warning, he punched Newt in the face.  Something audibly cracked, though Hermann couldn’t be certain whether it was something in Raleigh’s hand or something in Newton’s face.  Or both.

“Where’s my brother, Newt?!”

“Enough of this, Mr. Becket!”

“Hermann, it’s okay.”

Newt licked the blood off his split lip, which within moments had knitted itself together, right before their very eyes.  Raleigh’s eyes included.  

"Feel better now, tough guy?"

Raleigh gaped at him, eyes widening.  It took him several moments to manage, “What the hell?”

“If you would give us a _moment_ before your next outburst, we’ll explain.”

The other man stared at him for a moment before taking a step back and crossing his arms over his chest defensively.  “Alright, explain.”

“Okay, good, thank you.  Yancy’s a vampire.  We’ve got him locked in that room over there.”

Hermann sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Raleigh blinked and squinted like he hadn’t heard him right, which was certainly understandable.  “...What?”

“He’s a vampire.  I’m a vampire, too, by the way.  So are Pentecost’s new business partners!  Tendo, you know that friend of mine that comes around the coffee shop a lot?  He’s one, too.”  Newt waved his hands in the air.  “Surprise!”

“Bullshit.”

“You want me to prove it?  I mean, beyond the fact that I’m not peeling myself off the floor after you punched me?”

“I assure you, Mr. Becket,” Hermann interjected, “it’s true.”

“That’s crazy.  You’re both crazy.”  He didn’t sound so certain, though.

“Look, the stuff you got from the club was vampire venom, not some miracle drug.  Well, it kind of _is_ , technically, since it–”

“Newton–”

“ _Okay_ , okay.  The point is, the stuff didn’t just magically wake your brother up from his coma, it turned him into a vampire.  And _that_ woke him up from his coma.  He’s… still kinda adjusting what’s happening, so he’s a little… bitey.  That’s why we stuck him in there.  We didn’t just stick him in there because we think locking people up in closets is fun.”

“There have been others who’ve gotten this substance at that club,” Hermann said.  “They… didn’t fare as well.”

“What club?  What are you talking about?”

“Your supplier.”

Raleigh gave him a confused look.  “I didn’t get the stuff at any club.  I got it... somewhere else.”

“If not at the club, then where?” Hermann asked.  Were there other suppliers of this substance that they weren’t aware of?

He was hesitating, clearly reluctant to divulge more information.

Newton groaned impatiently.  “Raleigh, dude, just tell us where you got the damn venom, okay?  I’m not in the mood to play twenty questions.”

“It was at Raiju.”

“Raiju – like, _rival coffee shop_ Raiju?!”

Hermann had a sinking feeling he knew where this was going, and if the look on Newton’s face was any indication, so did he.

“It didn’t feel right to keep getting coffee at Tango after I quit, so… I started going there instead.  A guy that worked there noticed I was coming in a lot and we started talking, and when I mentioned what’d happened to Yancy, he told me he had something that might help.”

Newton’s brow furrowed.  “This guy… really tall?  Scar on on his face?  Wears really tacky shoes?”

Raleigh nodded.  “Sounds about right.  Why?”

Hermann’s blood ran cold.

“Son of a bitch!” Newton exclaimed angrily.  “Uh, no, not you!” he added hastily.  “The guy who sold you the stuff.”

“You _know_ him?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me guess, he’s a vampire, too.”

“Nah, just a creep.  A human creep.  He really didn’t tell you anything about the stuff?  Where it came from?  Nothing?”

Raleigh shook his head.  “He told me it was some sort of medication that hadn’t gotten released to the public yet, that it was still being tested out, but that it would probably be safe.”

Newton gawked at him incredulously.  “And that didn’t seem _weird_ to you?  Really?”

“Of course it did, but what the hell else was I supposed to do?!  Newt, he’s my brother.”

“How much have you given him?” Newt demanded.  “How long have you been giving it to him?”

“I’ve been giving him the doses the guy recommended, for about… two, maybe three weeks?”

Newton looked thoughtful.  “And he hadn’t woken up at all before tonight?”

“Don’t you think I might’ve mentioned it if he had?”

“I don’t know!” Newt exploded.  “I have no idea whether you’d mention it or not!  You didn’t mention you were dosing your brother with some weird mystery drug you knew nothing about!”

“Well, you never mentioned you were a _vampire_ , so I guess that makes us even!” Raleigh retorted, glaring and looking a bit like he wanted to punch him again.  “Let me see my brother, Newt.  I’m not gonna ask again!”

“Look, he’s– he’s dangerous.”

“Yancy wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Maybe _before_ he wouldn’t, but right now he’s kinda–”

“I still wanna see him.”

Hermann could hardly blame him for insisting.  Yancy was his brother.  His brother, who had been in a coma with very little hope for recovery and had, mere hours ago, disappeared without explanation.  Add to that everything they had just told him, and he had every right to be concerned.

“Look, I get that you’re worried.  I get that you don’t really buy what we’re telling you.  I get it.”  Newton glanced at Hermann for a second before saying, “Look, I need to go do some bloodwork and make sure everything’s okay–”

“Why wouldn’t he be okay?”

Newt rolled his eyes.  “I dunno, because he’s turning into a vampire and he’s been in a coma for months?  You’re just going to have to trust me on this, dude.  Let me go check things out, and when I get back… when I get back, we’ll see.”

“Yeah.  Okay.”  He didn’t look exactly happy about it, but at least he was willing to listen to reason.

The three of them went upstairs, and once Hermann was certain Raleigh was settled in their living room with no immediate plans on leaving the area, he followed Newton into the bedroom.  He was already sliding back into his jacket and stuffing Hermann’s car keys into his pocket, which was only barely large enough to accommodate a pack of chewing gum.

“Where are you going?”

“Look, I’ve got blood samples I need to check out, and the longer I wait, the less likely I am to get anything useful out of them.  I need to get back to the lab and see if I can figure out what Yancy’s deal is.  Whether he’s got the same… problem… as the others did.”

“And if he does?”

Newt rubbed the back of his neck nervously.  “I’ll figure something out.”

“Newton–”

“I’ll figure something out,” he repeated.  

“What about Mr. Becket’s story?”

Newton didn’t even look particularly angry anymore, though he did look upset.  “C’mon, Hermann, are we really shocked to find out Hannibal lied to me?  The guy practically wrote the book on lying for fun and profit.”

“What are you going to do?”

He sighed.  “Like I said, I’m heading to the lab.  I can kill Hannibal any time, but this blood thing is time sensitive.”

“Newton–”

“Dude, it was a figure of speech.  I’m not _really_ gonna kill him.”  He shrugged.  “Probably, anyway.  I’ll figure out what to do about _that_ mess later.  One thing at a time, y’know?  Hold down the fort while I’m gone.”

“I will.”

“And, uh, this probably goes without saying, but don’t open that closet.  Don’t let Raleigh open it, either.  Hog-tie him and toss him in the bathroom if you have to.”

“I doubt it’ll come to that.”

At least, he certainly hoped it wouldn’t.  

~

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in such an awkward situation.  It was almost absurd – considering everything that was happening, and continuing to happen – that he was sitting here with his boyfriend’s coworker as if it was just an incredibly awkward visit and they didn’t have Raleigh’s brother presently locked in a closet.

“Would you like something to drink?  Or eat?”

Raleigh turned his head and blinked, like he’d forgotten Hermann was sitting there, just a few feet away.  “Uh, no thanks, I’m good.”

He nodded politely and resisted the urge to fidget.

Raleigh glanced at him at him curiously.  “So…”

“Yes?”

“Are you a vampire, too?”

He resisted the urge to snort.  “Certainly not!”

“But you’re dating one.”

Hermann hadn’t intended the look he gave Raleigh to be as sharp as it was, but the younger man winced nonetheless.

“Sorry.”

They sat there in silence for awhile.

“Did you…” Raleigh started, before trailing off, looking embarrassed.  “Uh, never mind.  It’s none of my business.”

At this point, anything was better than the awkward silence they’d previously been sitting in.  “No, go on.”

“Did you know he was a vampire before you started dating him?”

“Yes.”

“Huh.”

“Newton is the same person you’ve spent several years working with, Mr. Becket.  You only know more about him than you previously did.”

“He’s been one the _whole_ time?  How long?”

Ordinarily, Hermann would be reluctant to lay all the details of someone’s personal life bare, but given Newton’s outgoing personality, he might have eagerly volunteered the information himself if he’d been there.  “A couple… decades…  Give or take a year.”

“A couple–”  Raleigh stared at him, wide-eyed, before nodding.  “Okay.  And that isn’t… I mean, you’re _okay_ with all of this?”

“Okay with what, exactly?”

“You’re dating a vampire.  An actual fanged, blood-sucking–”

Hermann felt mildly offended.  “Newton is a _person_.”

“Who drinks blood!”

“It’s not as though he prowls the night hunting for victims and killing them!  He has a condition, yes, and certainly his life is not without… difficulties, but he is not some kind of monster from a horror movie!”  

Raleigh sat back, looking a bit akin to a chastised puppy.  “Yeah, okay.  Look, I’m– I’m sorry.  This is just kind of… a lot to try to wrap my head around, you know?”

“I understand, believe me.”

“So vampires exist.  What else is there?  Werewolves?  Witches?”

He highly doubted it.  Werewolves seemed unlikely, and witches even unlikelier.  He was reasonably certain Newton would have mentioned either of those things if they actually existed.  Reasonably.

Before he had time to ponder it further, there was a loud noise, like something heavy falling or breaking.  The floor shuddered with the force of it.

Raleigh leapt to his feet.  “What was that?”

Hermann had no way of knowing for certain, yet a sick feeling of dread knotted his stomach.  Raleigh gave him a look that told Hermann he was thinking the same thing.

“I’m going down there.”

“I don’t think that’s wise.”

“Well, nobody’s ever accused me of being wise.”

Hermann stood hurriedly as Raleigh took a step away from the couch.  “Mr. Becket, need I remind you that your brother is currently–”

“All the more reason to get down there and see what’s going on!”

“No, all the more reason for us to stay _here_ until Newton returns!  Of the three of us, he is the only one equipped to defend himself adequately.”

That wasn’t entirely true, of course, but he didn’t want to use the stake sheathed in his cane unless he absolutely had to.  That, and he doubted Raleigh would react well to someone driving a stake through his brother’s heart – self-defense or not.

“Yancy won’t hurt me.”

“You don’t know that!  He’s not–”

Raleigh glared at him, a bit too distraught to look properly angry.  “I do.  He’s my brother.  Whatever’s happened to him, no matter how much he’s changed, he would never hurt me.”

He sounded so sincere.  He truly believed what he was saying.  Hermann might have even been inclined to agree, if he hadn’t seen with his own eyes what these vampires were capable of doing to a person with minimal provocation.

“I understand,” Hermann said, “and I’m sure that would be true if he were in a sensible state of mind, but–”

“You can’t stop me from going down there,” Raleigh said, glaring at him.  “Stay up here, if you want, but I’m going.”

He could probably incapacitate Raleigh if he had to, but likely not without injuring both Raleigh and himself in the process, and a fight seemed ill-advised at a time like this.  He doubted Newton’s suggestion of tying him up had factored in the possibility of Yancy breaking free beforehand.

“I’ll go with you,” he replied with a sigh.  “I don’t suppose you’re armed?”

He didn’t realize how absurd it was to ask a _barista_ if he was armed until Raleigh gave him a quizzical look.  “What?  No.”  He paused.  “Are you?”

“Er, no.”

The lie didn’t sit well, but if it _did_ come down to having to use his weapon, it was better for everyone involved if Raleigh didn’t have time to react – or to interfere and get the both of them killed.

~

When the lift reached the lower floor, they remained inside for a few moments.

“I’m not sure what we’re going to find on the other side of this door.”

“Open it,” Raleigh replied.  “I’ve got your back.”

That would have been reassuring in any other situation, perhaps – after all, Raleigh certainly looked like he could hold his own in a fight.  However, there was a wild vampire in the building, and even if Raleigh were willing to hurt Yancy – which he doubted – Hermann didn’t think he’d stand much of a chance if he became as violent as the others had.

His hand shook slightly as he slid the lift door open.  Beyond that, the door to the closet that had once contained Yancy was still hanging on its hinges, just barely.  A good fifth of it was broken and splintered, the lock broken.

He swallowed past the tightness in his throat and licked his lips.  “He’s broken free.”  He had suspected as much, already, but to see it…  

“Where is he?  Did he go outside?”

That thought had occurred to him, as well, but all of the windows were intact, as was the front door.  Newton had locked it behind him when he’d left – Yancy would have had to have broken that down, too, in order to get out.  

Which meant he was still somewhere inside the building.  The building was a repurposed warehouse, and had at one point in time been much larger on the inside, but most of the extra space on the first floor had been filled in with cement, save for the foyer, the closet, and the garage.  The garage, which Newton had the unfortunate habit of leaving unlocked.

The door connecting the foyer to the garage was around the corner to the right.  He couldn’t see it from the lift, but it was the sensible place to look.  Yancy was either there or on his way up the stairs to the second floor.  From what he gathered from Newt’s altercation with him earlier, however, he was willing to bet that the garage was more likely than a flight of stairs.

Realizing Raleigh didn’t know the layout of the building as he did, he said, “The garage.”

“You think he went in there?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

“Like I said–”

“You’ve got my back, yes, I know.  This way.”

“Right behind you.”

Together, they rounded the corner.  It was as Hermann had suspected.  The door was open – wide open – and still relatively intact, aside from the door knob sitting at an odd, broken angle.

“Let me go in first,” Raleigh suggested.

He wanted to argue against it, but they were both equally ill-equipped to face Yancy if he was lying in wait for them, so it made little difference.  

“Be careful.  The light switch is just to the right of the door.”

“Alright.”

Raleigh stepped past Hermann quietly and pushed the door the rest of the way open.  A moment later the light flickered on, and Hermann followed.

The garage was large by garage standards, and from what Hermann understood they had actually made it smaller than it originally had been when they turned it into a residential building.  They stored most of their extra toiletries and other household supplies within, so even without the car occupying its usual space, there were enough shelves and dark corners for a person to hide if they were so inclined.

Hermann had a very sudden and vivid memory of the small storage closet he’d found Bernard in.  At the moment he wasn’t sure which would be worse – finding Yancy alive and hostile or finding him lying somewhere in there dead.  If he was alive and conscious, he had the advantage over them.  They had no idea where in the room he was, and if Yancy had any measure of control over his new senses, he could likely tell exactly where in the room they were without having to look.

He couldn’t imagine him being anything other than hostile.  A sensible person wouldn’t have torn a door nearly off its hinges with his bare hands then hid in a parking garage.

“Yancy?” Raleigh called out.  “Are you in here?”

Hermann considered chastising him, but it wasn’t as though they’d had the element of surprise in the first place.

Yancy didn’t answer.  It would have been a bit surprising if he had.

“You go that way,” Hermann said, gesturing towards the right.  “I’ll circle around the opposite direction, and we’ll meet up on the other side of the room.  He’s less likely to evade us that way.”

“Alright.”

Raleigh didn’t ask him if that was a good idea, which was a relief, because Hermann wasn’t sure that it was.  It was, however, the quickest way to find out whether or not he was hiding somewhere in the garage, and the sooner they found him, the less likely he was to escape unnoticed while they fumbled about.

They went off in the agreed upon directions, and Hermann scanned the room as thoroughly as he could – which would have been a lot easier if it had been less cluttered within.  If Newton’s need to keep fifty rolls of toilet paper more than they actually needed nearby at all times got him killed, he would personally claw his way back out of the grave to strangle him.  

From the opposite side of the room, Raleigh said, voice raised just enough for Hermann to hear.  “Are you sure he’s in here?”

“Reasonably!”

Though the longer they remained there, looking and failing to find him, the less sure he was.  He doubted Yancy was in any state of mind to deliberately mislead them by making it look like he fled to the garage.  Yet he had the sinking feeling that if they hadn’t found him already, they weren’t going to.  Perhaps he had entered the garage initially and wandered about inside before wandering back out.  Maybe he had gone up–

He heard a low growling noise.  

From _behind_ him.  

“Mr. Becket,” Hermann said loudly, and even he wasn’t sure whether he was trying to appeal to Yancy himself or trying to get Raleigh’s attention, but Raleigh was the one that answered, somewhere out of sight.

“Did you find something?”

He turned around, slowly, in hopes of avoiding agitating the elder Becket more than he was already.  There he stood, looking disheveled and not particularly happy.  

“Yes.  Yes, I would say so.”

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

Yancy advanced towards Hermann and Hermann backed up until his back hit a wall, then he reluctantly twisted the handle of his cane and pulled the stake free.

Raleigh skidded around the corner, the concern on his face exploding into outright terror when he saw the stake Hermann held.  “Wait, no!  Yancy!”

Yancy hesitated, then he turned towards Raleigh.  His back was completely to Hermann.  He was unlikely to get a better opening than that.

The line of thought must have shown on his face, because Raleigh held up a hand.  “Don’t!  Please, don’t!”  To Yancy he said, “Come on, Yancy, it’s me – Raleigh.  You know me.  I’m your brother.”

Hermann couldn’t see Yancy’s face – couldn’t tell if anything Raleigh was saying was actually sparking any recognition – but he wasn’t attacking.  It was more hesitation than any of the others had ever shown.

“Mr. Becket–”

“Don’t, just– just don’t.  It’s okay.  It’s alright.”

He wasn’t sure that it was, and if Yancy were to attack Raleigh, he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to stop him before he was seriously injured – or worse.  The wise course of action would be to stop Yancy before he had a chance to, and yet… he hesitated.  As Yancy was still hesitating.  For several excruciating moments, time seemed to slow to a crawl while the three of them stood there, each of them apparently unsure of what to do.

Raleigh raised his hands placatingly and inched steadily forward.  “Yancy, you’re sick.  You’ve– you’ve been sick for awhile, but it’s going to be okay, we’re gonna get you help.  You just need to come with us, alright?”

Yancy’s shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t make any move to attack Raleigh – or to move away from him.  

“We can put him in our bedroom,” Hermann said.  “Though if the door to that closet wasn’t sturdy enough to contain him, that one won’t fare much better.”

“He’ll be fine.”

He was not at all sure of that, but it wasn’t as though they had very many options at this point.  Whether Raleigh chose to acknowledge it or not, they were both in a considerable amount of danger without Newton there to subdue Yancy if it became necessary.  With that in mind, keeping Yancy in his and Newt’s bedroom didn’t seem any more dangerous than any of the alternatives they currently had available to them.  The room Newton had placed him in had been the sturdiest room in the building, and even that hadn’t held up in the long run.

At least their room was considerably more welcoming than a closet, and there was a bed.  If they could keep Yancy relatively comfortable it might help keep him relatively calm for the moment.

~

Guiding Yancy to the lift had been surprisingly easy.  Hermann had been reluctant to voluntarily trap himself in an enclosed space with a potentially hostile vampire – even if only for a few moments – but Yancy remained remarkably docile.  It made him question why he had felt the need to break out of his room in the first place.

Once they herded him into the bedroom, Raleigh guided him to sit on the bed, and knelt in front of him.

“We’re gonna figure this out,” he said.  “It’s gonna be okay.”

Yancy stared at him like he wasn’t entirely understanding his words, but he nodded, and when Raleigh stood and walked away from the bed, Yancy stayed there and didn’t attempt to follow him or Hermann as they left the room.

As Hermann shut the door, Raleigh said, incredulously, “He’s strong.”

“Yes.”

Raleigh gave him a look.  “Is _Newt_ that strong?”

“As strong.  Perhaps stronger, believe it or not.”

“This whole thing is crazy.  I– I don’t know what to do.”

Neither did Hermann, but he doubted admitting that to the poor man would make him feel any better.  Comforting others was hardly Hermann’s strong point, especially in situations as severe as this.

“When Newton returns, we’ll have a better grasp of the situation,” he said, finally.

“To be honest with you,” Raleigh said, pacing restlessly across the room.  “I’m not sure that I’m ever gonna be able to wrap my head around any of this, but… for Yancy I’m willing to try.  How long’s he gonna be like this?  All violent and…”

“I honestly don’t know.”

Raleigh stopped and looked at him.  “He’s going to be okay, though, right?  I mean, Newt doesn’t go around snarling at everyone in sight.”

“Not most days.”

The other man laughed.  “Was that a joke?”

“A poor attempt at one, yes.”

Raleigh’s smile wavered.  “Does that door lock?”

“Only from the inside,” he replied.  “Even if that weren’t the case, if the door to the supply closet downstairs wasn’t enough to hold him at bay, I doubt this one would stand much of a chance if he were to try to force it open.  At this point, I suppose we’ll just have to hope he doesn’t get the urge to wander again before Newton returns.”

The other man nodded, looking uneasy, and Hermann gave him the best reassuring smile he could muster.

It wasn’t very convincing.


	16. Chapter 16

It didn’t take Newt long to get to the lab.  He’d already been pretty familiar with the route to the school before all this because Hermann worked there and he’d visit sometimes when he worked late, but now he practically knew the route to the lab itself like the back of his hand.  He could probably walk there blindfolded, if he had to.

He’d even kind of started to mentally refer to it as _his_ lab, even though it really wasn’t.  School property, not his.  Not that _they_ were getting much use out of it.  It’d probably seen more action in the past week than it had in the past decade.

It’d taken him longer than he’d like to get the blood out of the backseat of the car.  At first he’d been worried that it was too late, that the blood had soaked in and had too much time to dry, but eventually he’d managed to squeeze enough out of there.  It wasn’t ideal, and it probably had fibers from the seat in there, but he was pretty sure he knew how to tell the difference between dna and cheap car upholstery.  He wasn’t _that_ rusty.

He sighed in relief when he stuck the sample under the microscope and it still showed some signs of life.  The others had deteriorated a lot before he’d gotten to them, and it’d made it that much harder to get anything useful from them.

Yancy was definitely reacting to the venom differently than the others, though.  At first he thought it might’ve been because the blood was from a live subject for once, but that wasn’t it.  Or, at least, that wasn’t _all_ of it.  It was more stable.  He wasn’t sure if it was stable enough to sustain a full transformation into a functional vampire and not… the bad, scary alternative, but it was still a big difference.

It made sense.  According to his roommate, Bernard had been taking the stuff for awhile before he’d suddenly went on a murderous rampage.  If he’d been taking a safer – for a certain value of safe, anyway – dosage initially and had started taking more later on for whatever reason, it could explain why he’d suddenly taken a turn for the worse.  It was impossible to know for sure, but he was willing to bet Sophia had been taking it for awhile, too.  Hell, the bartender had been in on the whole thing – maybe he’d been slipping it to her without her even realizing it.  Maybe they’d gotten a little overzealous with their screwed up  little experiment that night and that’s what had tipped it over the edge.

Newt leaned forward and tapped the surface of the desk with his fingers, thinking.

And then there was Raleigh.  Raleigh who just wanted to help his brother out, who was apparently given clear enough instructions on what to do and how to do it that his brother _hadn’t_ gone ballistic and started killing people – yet, anyway.  That didn’t really explain why he’d stayed comatose for weeks before finally transforming seemingly at random.  If Raleigh was giving him a fixed amount the whole time, what had changed?  

Unless it wasn’t random and the changes were just subtle enough that nobody noticed them, which seemed… _really_ negligent on the hospital staff’s part, but it was _possible_.  If they had no reason to pay extra attention to a patient whose condition hadn’t changed at all in months, the changes might’ve skated under the radar.  

The important thing was to make sure Yancy was stable and would stay stable.  At least long enough to finish maturing into a full-fledged vampire.  If he could find a way to reinforce the transformation somehow and keep him stable until then, his own body would be able to take over after that.  Probably.  

It wasn’t a sure thing, but it was pretty much all he had at this point, and he had a hunch.  It wasn’t a very scientific hunch, but at this point it couldn’t really hurt to test it, right?  It was something that had been bugging him ever since that guy at the warehouse mentioned snatching the sample from Hannibal’s stock, because up until then he’d just assumed they’d been milking fresh venom off of some poor sap they’d kidnapped off the streets.  

He pulled away from the microscope and reached for the scalpel he’d been using to dissect the other vampires.  He only hesitated for half a second before slicing into his hand.  It wasn’t anything that wouldn’t heal up in a few more seconds.  It hurt a bit, but not that bad.  A vampire could only get sliced open so many times before his brain caught up with the fact that knife wounds – or scalpel wounds – being serious business was a thing of the past.

It was already healing before he was even done dragging the blade across his skin.  Still enough to bleed like a stuck pig, though.  He belatedly realized a syringe might’ve made less of a mess, but the scalpel had been right _there_.

He held the bloody scalpel over the slide with Yancy’s blood sample just long enough for a drop to drip onto it.  He didn’t want to drown it in his blood, he just needed enough there to test his hunch.  He stuck it back under the microscope and gave it another look.

It wasn’t reacting – at all.  Now, typical blood compatibility issues aside, even if their blood types would have been a match, Newt being a vampire pretty much nuked his usefulness as a blood donor – to a human, anyway.  Yancy wasn’t human anymore.  Vampire blood, when it detected any foreign bodies, attacked them pretty viciously – kind of like a human body rejecting incompatible blood, only minus the dying part.  So the fact that it was doing _nothing_ except just peacefully sloshing around with it could only mean one thing.  Newt’s brain was having trouble wrapping his mind around it, even though it made sense in a horrible kind of way.

Raleigh had gotten the venom from Hannibal.  Of _course_ Hannibal would’ve still had some of Newt’s venom lying around.  He was absolutely the kind of creep who’d keep a guy’s bodily fluids around for twenty years after the fact.

Okay, but what could Newt _do_ with this information?

The venom that was changing Yancy was _his_.  It wasn’t exactly the same thing as sharing DNA in a typical familial sense, but vampire venom contained a little bit of the vampire it came from, and at least _some_ of it did pass on from the biter the bite-ee.  Newt hadn’t gotten as far as he would have liked with his old research, but he had figured out that much and plenty of vampires attested to things like vampire bloodlines being a tangible, trackable thing – even though he was pretty sure at least some of that was just stuff old vampires made up to feel superior.

Even if the circumstances here were a bit different, all that still applied, though, right?  For all intents and purposes Yancy had been “bitten” by him, so he was his.

He had an idea.  It was a good idea, but for it to work he had to do something, which… was honestly probably a bad idea.  The only other option was to let Yancy _die_ , though, and that wasn’t really an option.

~

Another perk of being a vampire: having the advantage in a dark room in the middle of the night when the other person had no idea someone was there was a good one.  Hannibal could be a cautious guy when he needed to be, but Newt was pretty sure the cushy life of a uptown coffee shop owner had gone to his head.  Twenty years ago he might’ve realized Newt was there before he flipped on the light.  

Now he didn’t.

The thought crossed his mind that in the time it took Hannibal to turn on the light and see him, he could probably kill him and spare himself and everyone else anymore of the guy’s bullshit.  He wasn’t really sure that he could, though.  Sure, he was physically capable of it, but he just wasn’t sure he could bring himself to kill him, even if it was really tempting.  Having a conscience was a pain in the ass.  A pain in the ass that was probably going to get him killed one of these days.  It had already almost gotten him killed a couple times.  He really didn’t have a great track record.

He sat there, wondering how he should handle this now that he was there, and Hannibal was there, and they were both… well, there.  Beyond knowing what he came for, he hadn’t had a solid plan of attack beyond “don’t end up dead or cut open on a table somewhere.”  Should he sneak attack Hannibal while he still had the advantage of surprise?  He didn’t have to _kill_ him, but he could sneak up on him and knock him out.  Tie him up or something.  Smack him around a little bit, maybe, and–

The light flipped on.

Hannibal looked at Newt like it was totally reasonable for him to have broken into his office and hid there in the dark.  He hadn’t known he was there, but he wasn’t _surprised_ to see him there.  It made him wonder how often people broke into his office.  

“What the hell do you want now?”

“Well, I didn’t come for the coffee.”

“You really need to learn to let things go, kid.”

“Yeah, I’m working on that.”

“So, what’s the deal?”

“We need to talk.”

“Ever heard of a phone?”

“You lied to me.”

Hannibal chuckled and shook his head.  “I’ve lied about a lot of things over the years – you’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

“You said you didn’t know anything about what was going on.  You said you had nothing to do with it.  I know you sold the stuff to Raleigh.  He told me.”

“So what?  From what I hear, his brother’s alive – _and_ awake.  You should be happy, Newt.  The stuff finally did what you always wanted it to do.”

“It wasn’t supposed to turn people into vampires.”

“Eh, details.  He’ll live, right?”

Newt snorted.  “Sure.  Unless he ends up dying like the others.”

“You’re a resourceful guy, I’m sure you’ll figure something out, if you haven’t already.”

“They were working for you, weren’t they?  They said they took a sample that you’d been holding onto, but you _gave_ it to them, didn’t you?”  He was so angry he felt like he was going to explode out of his skin.  “It was mine, wasn’t it?”

“Does it matter?”

“Which part?  The part where you lied to me about not having anything to do with this, or the part where you gave them _my_ venom to test on people like guinea pigs?!”

“You take things way too personally, Newt.”

“You think so?   _Personally_ , I think a guy has the right to be a little pissed off after being lied to, nearly killed, lied to _again_ –”

“I didn’t lie.  I gave Raleigh a sample, yeah.  With specific instructions.  Your instructions.”

“I didn’t–”

Hannibal held a hand up.  “Was I sure that it’d work or not?  Nah.  How could I be?  Even _you_ weren't sure if the stuff would work as-is.  I figured it’d give the kid a decent chance, though.”

“Right.  ‘Cause you’re so kind and giving.”

“As for the others,” Hannibal said pointedly, “it’s like I said.  I had nothing to do with it.  My guys must have taken it after I’d dipped into it, because until you walked in throwing around accusations, I didn’t even know the juice was missing.”

He hated to admit it, but it made sense.  If they’d taken the venom, but didn’t have any of the information to go along with it, it’d explain why the others had ended up mutating out of control.  They’d have to test different amounts of the stuff to try to find out the right dose.

It all sort of clicked into place.  “They stole the blood, but they didn’t get the notes.”

“I keep merchandise close and information even closer.  I can always get new samples, but those notes of yours are priceless.  And without the notes, those idiots had no idea what they were doing.”

“Yeah, well, they tried to figure it out.”

“Did a piss poor job of it, too.”

“People _died_ because of this, dude,” Newt retorted.  “How do I know these guys weren’t just, like, a subdivision of yours or something?  Working separate so you could stand here and tell me you aren’t _technically_ responsible?”

“If I’d had them cooking up more of this stuff, don’t you think I’d want them doing it right?  Dead customers and news headlines aren’t exactly good for business.”

That made sense, too, but he didn’t really want to admit that.  He knew from experience that Hannibal didn’t give a rat’s ass about the well-being of his customers, but he was smart.  Smart enough that he’d know better than to let a bunch of test subjects run around killing people, at the very least, because massive media coverage drew attention, and guys like Hannibal only ever stayed in business by being discreet enough to sneak under the radar.

“I can show you where I kept the stuff, and what I have left, if it’ll put your mind at ease,” Hannibal offered.

He was beginning to think _nothing_ was ever going to put his mind at ease after all this crap, but he nodded.

Hannibal walked over to his desk and pressed what was probably a button underneath it.  For a split second Newt wondered if he’d just been buying time up until he could press some police alert button like all the banks and important places had in every action movie either, but a second later a bookcase behind the desk slid to the left and revealed a dark doorway.

“A secret passage hidden behind a bookcase?   _Really_?”

“Not many people actually expect one to be there,” Hannibal replied.  “It’s where they least expect an actual secret room to be.”

That… wasn’t half-bad logic.  It still made him roll his eyes, though.

“Yeah, okay.  If you say so.   _I_ say you’re turning into a James Bond villain in your old age.”

“Well, I _have_ been thinking about getting a cat.”

He wasn’t even going to dignify that one with a response.  Hannibal stood at the entrance and looked at him expectantly.

“I’m not going in there first, if that’s what you’re waiting for.  Do I look that stupid?”

“What do you think I’m gonna do?”

“Asks the guy who once knocked me out and _vivisected_ me.”

The other man shrugged.  “Fair enough.”

Newt trailed after him, cautiously – even with Hannibal in front of him and not behind, he still felt kind of on edge.  He wasn’t one hundred percent sure this wasn’t some kind of trap.  Even if Hannibal hadn’t been expecting him to show up tonight – which he was pretty sure he hadn’t – that didn’t rule out him having some sort of “just in case” back-up plan in place in case he did.  

The passageway wasn’t very long, and it ended at a door with a keypad, several locks, and probably a couple other security measures that weren’t visible to the naked eye.  Hannibal didn’t bother hiding the code he punched into the keypad, and Newt wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be some sort sort of show of good faith or if Hannibal just wasn’t that worried about Newt running off with his stock.

The room behind the door wasn’t that big.  Not the kind of sprawling place full of organs and limbs like some kind of human chop shop, which made it an improvement over the room Newt had seen just once before – when he’d escaped from it.  It did have a few things, though.  Things that were definitely not standard coffee shop decorations.

He walked up to a liquid-filled tube where what appeared to be a kidney was floating idly.  He was faced with that really, really unsettling feeling of seeing something he really shouldn’t be seeing.  It wasn’t like this was the first organ he’d seen separate from the body it belonged to.  

He was pretty sure it was the first time he’d seen one of his, though.  He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he just knew.

He felt like he was going to throw up.  “You _kept_ this?”

“Call me sentimental.”

“Uh.  Am I supposed to be touched that you kept my organs around in jars for sentimental value?  Really?”

It was creepy.  Really creepy.  It ranked up there with finding photos of himself plastered all over Hannibal’s walls.

Hannibal gestured and strode across the room towards a small fridge.  “All the fluid samples I kept around, I kept in here.  Spinal fluid, blood–”

“The venom.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Newt tried not to fidget as Hannibal opened the refrigerator, but it was kind of hard not too.  He had this mental image of half his organs tossed in there like something out of a horror movie.  He knew better, but he was still relieved when the door opened and the refrigerator looked… pretty much like the inside of any other refrigerator you’d find in a lab or hospital.  Definitely not what you’d expect to find in one at the back of a coffee shop, though.

“All the stuff in there’s mine?”

Hannibal smirked.  He knew how uncomfortable he was making him, and he was getting a kick out of it.

_Jerk._

“Nah.  A lot of it is, yeah, but some of it was from a few other donors.  Some of the blood’s yours.  All the venom was yours.”

“Pretty sure they only count as donors if they _voluntarily_ donate.”

“Eh, details.”

This just confirmed what Newt had already suspected.  He’d known from the way Yancy’s blood reacted to his that Yancy, at least, had probably gotten his venom.  It hadn’t been that much of a stretch that the others did, too.  He didn’t remember getting his venom extracted – and having someone milk you like a snake was something most people would have remembered – but then again, it’s not like he remembered a whole lot about that period of time.  It was all pretty hazy.

“It was here one minute and gone the next.  I keep this place locked up pretty tight, but they got in and out without tripping any alarms.  Probably were planning to do it for awhile.”

Newt found it hard to believe.  Hard, but not impossible, and that tiny little sliver of uncertainty was just enough to keep him from just throttling Hannibal and calling it a day.  The guy usually kept pretty tight security – he hadn’t gotten as high up the career ladder as he had in life by being sloppy.  Still, if they’d been planning on screwing him over for awhile, they might’ve had time to find the holes in his security.  

And Ming had proven Hannibal wasn’t the quickest when it came to sniffing out betrayal, though Newt would’ve thought he’d have been a little more careful after that mess.  Maybe he _was_ getting sloppy in his old age.

Old age…  Hannibal hadn’t been a _really_ young guy when they’d met, but he wasn’t much older than Newt.  It was easy for him to forget that they were both a lot older than they’d been back then.  And maybe it was just the bad lighting in that creepy room, but for a second Hannibal really looked it – old and tired.  

For the first time Newt seriously considered the possibility that Hannibal’s spiel about retiring from a life of crime to run a coffee shop might actually be true.  It didn’t make him hate him any less for everything else, but it was… something.

Hannibal shut the refrigerator.  “Satisfied?”

“Not yet,” Newt replied.  “Give me the notes.”

“What?”

He gestured toward the computer at the desk in the middle of the room.  “Don’t play dumb with me, man.  Give.  Me.  The.  Notes.  They’re _my_ notes, and I’m taking them.  Everything of mine that you have, I want.”  He curled his nose and waved at the wall of tubes and jars.  “Except for those.  You can keep those.  You’re gonna give me all the data, though, and once I have it, you’re gonna wipe it off of your computer.”

Hannibal crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at him.  “And if I say no?”

For the past few minutes, he’d been too creeped out and on edge to really stay mad, but the anger was starting to flare up again.

“Dude, you _owe_ me this.  After everything that’s happened, back then and in the past year, you owe me at _least_ that much.  You want me out of your hair?  You want me to actually believe you’ve turned over a new leaf?  Then prove it.  ‘Cause as long as you have it, there’s always gonna be someone wanting to take it and use it, and if you say no, that’s pretty much just gonna confirm that at least one of those people is _you_.”

Hannibal glared at him for a long moment.  “Nice speech.”

“Thanks.  So, are you gonna–”

He sighed and strode towards the computer.  “Yeah, yeah.  Just give me a minute.”  

Newt followed him across the room.  When they reached the desk, he sat on the edge of it while Hannibal booted up his computer and started moving the files.  Hannibal glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.  

“That’s a one hundred thousand dollar desk.”

“Comfy.”

Hannibal chuckled and shook his head.  “You’ve got balls, kid.  More now than you did back in the old days.”

“Could you stop calling me ‘kid?’  You’re like two years older than me.”

“I could, but I won’t.  I’m already giving you a lot.  My whole livelihood’s on this computer.”

“ _Former_ livelihood, right?”

He didn’t comment on that.  When the computer chimed to confirm it was done moving the files, he pulled out a disk and shoved into Newt’s hands.

He turned it over and gawked at it.  “A floppy disk?  Really?”

“Call me old-fashioned.”

“There’s old-fashioned and there’s _prehistoric_.”

“So what are you gonna do with it?  Destroy it?”

“...Maybe.”  He didn’t hesitate long, but he hesitated enough, and Hannibal latched onto it like a dog with a bone.

“I don’t think you have it in you.  I don’t think you can take the fruit of all that time and effort you put into your research and throw it away.”

He wasn’t really sure he had it in him, either.  As long as it was out of Hannibal’s hands it was way less likely to cause trouble in the future.  What he did with it afterward was his business.  Maybe he’d hold onto it, maybe he wouldn’t.  He’d have to think about it.

“That’s what I figured.”

“Y’know what?  You don’t know me half as well as you think you do.”

Hannibal smirked.  “Sure.”

If he hung around any longer, he was going to end up saying or doing something he regretted, so he hopped off the desk and headed for the door.  He stopped in the doorway.

“I’ve got a serious question.”

“Shoot.”

“Would you’ve–  Was using me in your latest vampire product line the plan all along?”

“You mean, would I still have done it if you hadn’t started poking around and asking to many questions?”

Newt licked his lips.  “Yeah.”

“Probably, yeah.  Once I was sure I didn’t need you anymore.  You just sped things up a little.”

“Wow, an honest answer.”

Hannibal chuckled.  “Would you have believed me if I said no?”

“No, not really.”

He walked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Getting close to the end! There's going to be at least one more full chapter, and possibly a shorter epilogue type of chapter after that. 
> 
> I'd like to thank everyone that's been keeping up with the fic all this time, even throughout various scheduling mishaps and etc.! Your support has meant a lot to me!


	17. Chapter 17

It was roughly an hour before dawn when Newton finally returned.  Hermann had begun to worry that he wasn’t going to make it back before the sun came up, and he hadn’t relished the idea of the situation going another fourteen hours unresolved.  Raleigh had succumbed to exhaustion a couple hours before.  Hermann was rather tired himself, but he’d surmised the experience had been considerably more draining on the younger Becket than it had on him and it had seemed wise for at least one of them to stay awake -- just in case Yancy became inclined to wander again.

He didn’t need enhanced senses to hear Newton’s frantic footsteps as he reached the top of the staircase and practically exploded into the living room.  Raleigh bolted upright at the sound of the door slamming open, looking surprisingly alert for someone who’d been sound asleep just a moment before.

“Guys?!”  Newton panted.  “What happened downstairs?!”

“We had a bit of an… incident,” Hermann replied, “but we got it under control.”

He gawked at him.  “An ‘incident?’  Dude, burning dinner is an ‘incident,’ there’s a door knocked off it’s _hinges_  down there!  Where’s Yancy?”

Raleigh rubbed his face.  “In your bedroom.”

“Oh, great.”  

“It was resolved, and no one was hurt.  Although I _am_  glad you managed to get back before the sun came up.”

“I’d have hurried things up a little if I’d known--”

“Newton,” Hermann replied gently, “it’s alright.  Did you learn anything new?”

An unreadable look briefly passed across the other man’s face.  “Uh, yeah.  Yeah, I did.  More importantly I cooked up _this_.”  He brandished a vial of red liquid.  

Raleigh squinted.  “What is that?”

“It’s what’s hopefully gonna save Yancy’s life, that’s what.”

“‘Hopefully’?”

The vampire shrugged.  “Hey, I’ve never done this before, I’m making it up as I go along.”

“Newton--”

“Look, the science behind it is sound, okay?  I just-- I won’t know for sure if it’ll actually work until it does or doesn’t.  It’s never been tested.”

Raleigh stood up with a stretch.  “Well, that’s reassuring.  Will it cure him? If it works?”

“It’ll stabilize him.  Hopefully.”  Newt shook his head.  “That’s all it’s gonna do, though.  It’s not going to de-fang him, sorry.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“I should probably get it to him before the sun comes up.”

Hermann trailed after him as he headed toward the bedroom.  He waited for Raleigh to wander off in the direction of the kitchen before he quietly asked, “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You just seem a bit… agitated, that’s all.”  Newton was vibrating with nervous energy, and while some of it was likely the situation in general, Hermann couldn’t help but feel as though that wasn’t _all_  of it.  “Did something happen?”

“I went to see Hannibal.”

Hermann pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No, dude, it’s okay!  Nothing _bad_  happened or anything.  I just-- I needed my data.  My old stuff.  And I knew he probably still had it, so…”  

“You confronted him.”

“About the venom, yeah.  He swears he didn’t have anything to do with the others, that the only person he gave any to was Raleigh.  The guys at the warehouse stole the rest of it from him.”

“And you believe that?”

“For once?  Yeah, I think I do.”  He paused, a pensive look on his face.  “Also, uh.  The venom he gave Raleigh was mine.”

“What?”

“He’s–” Newt gestured awkwardly, “–mine.  The stuff Hannibal gave Raleigh was from his original stash of venom.”  He sighed heavily.  “Which– which would be mine.” 

“What exactly is it that you’re trying to say?”

“The baby’s mine,” Newt said, laughing a little at his own joke.  “The baby vampire, I mean.  Yancy, he’s– he was turned by my venom, that makes him… mine.  My responsibility.”

He looked terrible, though part of it could have been dawn approaching, Hermann supposed.  “It’s not as though you _bit_  him, Newton.”

“Well, okay, yeah, the circumstances are a bit… weird, but he’s still my responsibility.  If he survives.”

“What are his chances?”

“Pretty good, I think?  But it’s not like I’ve done any of this before, dude.  It’s all just a bunch of nice-sounding theories until I go in there, so…  So, I should probably go take care of that.”

“How do you need to administer it?”

“Injection.”

“That may prove--”

“Fun and exciting?”  Newt laughed, eyebrows raised.  “Yeah, I know.  The two of you should probably wait out here, in case he gets, uh, cranky.  Keep an eye on Raleigh.  I don’t want him running in there if things get hairy.”

“I’ve been keeping two eyes on him, most of the night,” Hermann replied.  “I think by now he realizes the gravity of the situation.”

“If there was a way to undo this, I would.  You know I would.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

Newt shook his head.  “It _is_ , though.  In more ways than one.”

“I think Raleigh’s most concerned with saving his brother’s life -- regardless of his status.”

He brightened and gave Hermann a smile.  “That, I can do.  It’s gonna work.  Probably.  If I don’t come out in five minutes, uh-- it’s probably because I passed out.  Peek in and check on us in a few hours?  Just to make sure Yancy didn’t eat me or anything?”

“Is that a concern?”

“Uh.  Hopefully not.”

~

A couple hours after dawn, with the sun well above the horizon and everyone in the neighborhood starting to wake up and go about their daily routine, he decided it was safe to check on Newton and Yancy.  Raleigh had been restless for the past hour, despite Hermann reminding him more than once that they wouldn’t be able to tell if the venture had been successful until the evening.

“But at least we’ll know if they killed each other or not,” Raleigh had said.

Even though neither of them had heard any of the noises typically associated with two people attempting to kill each other, he couldn’t deny that it _would_  put his mind at ease to have visual confirmation that Newton was safe.  He belated remembered, as he slowly pushed open the door, that the attack that had heralded the beginning of this mess had happened during the day -- perhaps he shouldn’t have been so sure that Yancy would be asleep.

_A bit late to worry about that now._

Yancy was asleep on the bed -- tucked in, no less.  Newton was half-curled in a chair by the window with his head pressed against the window sill.  It didn’t look particularly comfortable, but Newton wasn’t in any condition to care.  The room didn’t look like the disaster zone Hermann had anticipated after seeing the mess Yancy had made of the door the night before when he’d been feeling restless.  

Everything seemed… fine.  It felt like it had been a long time since anything had been what could be categorized as “fine.”

“It’s--” Hermann began to call out.  Before he could finish, Raleigh walked through the door, “--safe to come in.”  He sighed and gave the younger man a sharp look.

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

Raleigh moved towards the bed, giving Yancy a concerned look, “Is he…?”  

“Sleeping, yes.”

“He looks kind of--”

“It’s how they sleep.”

Raleigh glanced across the room at Newton then looked at Hermann.  “So this is normal?”

“It’s a sort of daytime hibernation.”

“Hibernation.”  Raleigh shook his head.  “...Okay.  So what should we do?”

“ _You_  should probably go to work.”

“But--”

“Mr. Becket--”

“Raleigh.”

“Raleigh.  They aren’t going anywhere, and they aren’t going to be waking up anytime soon.  There’s little point in staying here all day.”

The poor man looked conflicted, but Hermann could tell that he could see the sense in what he was saying.  He certainly wasn’t going to chase him out of the apartment if he was adamant about staying, but it would do him good to go occupy himself with something familiar.  

~

An hour later, he decided to follow his own advice.  He didn’t have any classes to attend to, the summer courses were finally beginning to dwindle off.  He had a few papers to grade, a final exam to put the finishing touches on, but not much else.  

He wondered what Newton planned to do, once Yancy was stabilized -- _if_  he was.  He clearly felt responsible for the man’s well-being.  He had already felt responsible for the situation as a whole, but now he had a reason to be more personally invested in Yancy’s fate.

He wondered what it had been like for Newton, in the beginning.  He talked about his past, of course, but he rarely mentioned anything about the first year or two of his vampirehood.  Hermann had learned more about it in the past week than he had in the past six months.  

Of course, Newton and Yancy’s situations were a bit different.  Yancy couldn’t simply walk back into his life without suspicion.  It wasn’t as though he’d been away on vacation.  Newton’s change of circumstance had impacted his life, certainly, but at least _he_  hadn’t been in a nearly year-long coma beforehand.  Much less one nobody had expected him to ever wake up from.  People would have questions.  Questions that would need answers -- or at the very least, halfway convincing lies.

It felt surreal to sit in his office, at his desk, and grade papers.  After everything that happened, to finally return to something that was actually routine felt… off.  He hoped this was the last of this.  No more attempted murders or actual murders -- at least not ones he and Newton were personally embroiled in.  He wanted to get on with his life, with Newton.  He realized their life together would never be a normal one, but he was hoping at the very least it would be a good one.

After all this, they both more than deserved a bit of peace and quiet.

He graded papers for about half an hour, and was about to start preparing the next exam, when an email notification chimed.  Irritated by the disruption, he sighed and opened his inbox.  

He stared for a long moment before turning his computer off and gathering his things.

~

Raleigh called half an hour before sundown to tell him he’d be there as soon as he could, but the coffee shop was busy.  He’d sounded restless and Hermann could hardly blame him.  The day had dragged on for what had felt like an eternity.  Knowing that there was nothing he could do but wait was aggravating, and it was probably infinitely worse for Raleigh.

“If I’m not there in time, you’ll call me if…”  

“Yes, of course.”

“I appreciate it.”

Hermann had gotten up and paced around the living room for awhile after that, growing more and more anxious about the situation as the sun dipped lower against the horizon.  When he could no longer stand it, he went to the bedroom door and cautiously pushed it open.  Both Newton and Yancy were still motionless, in the same positions they’d been hours earlier when he’d checked on them last.

He went to the window, where Newton was still sleeping, and waited.  Over on the bed, Yancy was still in a similar state of hibernation.  

Newton began to stir mere minutes after the sky started to darken.  Hermann still wasn't entirely sure how a vampire's sleep schedule worked.  He didn't know how Newton's body knew exactly when to start the process of waking up, but it did, every evening like clockwork.  His eyelids fluttered a bit and he stretched.  Something popped audibly, and anyone else would probably be feeling the after-effects of sleeping in that awkward position for hours, but Newton wouldn't.  What few aches and pains he might feel when he woke would fade within minutes, and Hermann couldn’t help but be a bit envious.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long.”

He sat back in the chair a moment, like he was trying to get his bearings.  He was far more alert upon waking than most people Hermann knew, but even he needed a minute or two to gather himself.  He nodded in the direction of the bed.

“Did he do anything while I was out?”

“Not that I’m aware of.  As far as I can tell, he’s right where you left him.”

“Good.  That’s… good.  Means his sleep schedule’s leveling out, anyway.”

Hermann glanced over at the bed.  Yancy was still immobile, and showed no signs of waking up anytime soon.  He stared intently, just in case he was missing some subtle activity.

“Don’t worry about it,” Newt said, chair creaking as he stood up.  “He’s fine.”

“Shouldn’t he be waking up?”

“Dude, when I first changed, I slept _a lot_.  It took me like a week to level out to where I’m at now.”

“So that’s… normal?”

“I’d have to do a study to really _know_ , but from what I’ve heard over the years, yeah, it’s normal.  I think the process of changing uses up so much energy, a person needs time to build it back up, you know?  What’s Raleigh’s ETA?”

“He’ll be here as soon as he can.  Can you tell if what you gave Yancy was successful?”

“Until he wakes up and we find out whether he’s leveled out on the brain front?  Not really.  There’s nothing to suggest it _didn’t_  work, so that’s something, at least.”

Yancy groaned.

Hermann froze.  “You were saying?”

“Uh, just stay over here.”

“What if he becomes hostile again, Newton?”

“Jump out the window?”

He gave him a withering glare.

Newton held up his hands placatingly.  “It’s fine, Hermann.  Everything’s fine.  Relax a little bit, okay?  The guy’s gonna be confused enough without you adding ten layers of tension to the room.”

He hurried across the room and to the bed at a speed that suggested he could have stood to follow his own advice.  

Yancy bolted upright, and Hermann couldn’t help but startle at the movement.  After all, less than twenty-four hours previously, Yancy had seemed very intent on ripping their apartment -- and anyone in it -- apart.  

“Hey, take it easy.”  It was directed at Yancy, but Hermann caught the sharp look Newton shot him out of the corner of his eye.  “You might not wanna stand up just yet, you’ve had a rough couple of days.”

“What?”

“Hey, look at you!  Forming whole words!  That’s a good sign.”

Yancy blinked at Newt blearily then turned to look at Hermann.  Confusion was written all over his face, and when he stared at Hermann, there was no recognition there that he could see.  There was no sign of the feral, mindless anger he’d leveled at him the night before, either, and Hermann felt something inside him relax a little.  

“What’s going on?” Yancy grumbled.  “I feel like I got hit by a truck.”

Hermann gave Newton a questioning look.

“That’s normal!  Also, I did sort of, uh, hit you really hard on the head yesterday, so there’s that.”

~

Hermann had worried that explaining the situation to Yancy would go about as well as explaining it to Raleigh initially had -- with the added potential of Yancy reacting violently, though he was less and less worried about that becoming an issue as time went on and Yancy still hadn’t tried to kill them both.  He actually handled the whole thing surprisingly well.  Better, at least, than his brother had, though at least part of that could probably be attributed to shock.  He’d seemed to have a harder time wrapping his mind around the revelation that he’d been comatose for the better part of a year than the part in which he was now a vampire.

Though, unlike in Raleigh’s case, Yancy was living the truth of vampires existing.  However unbelievable it might’ve been, it wasn’t as though he could deny the fact that the things he was feeling and experiencing were not normal human sensations.

"This is--"

"A lot to take in, I know," Newt said.  “Trust me, I’ve been there.”

"I-- I don't remember the accident, but I have these... pieces.  Of lying in a hospital bed, not being able to move... and then..."

"And then being able to move?"

Yancy rubbed his face.  "It's all pretty hazy."  He looked up at Newton.  "And you were there."

"And Hermann was there, and Toto was there, yeah, I know."

"It doesn't feel like something that really happened.  This whole thing doesn't feel real."

"Part of that's the shock and part of that's your body still adjusting to the change."

"The-- great.  That's great."  He glanced between them.  "Where's Raleigh?  Can I see him?"

"He'll be here as soon as he's able," Hermann replied.

Seeing the miserable look on the poor man's face, he regretted that he'd insisted on sending Raleigh away earlier.  Having him there might have helped lessen the blow of it all.  Hopefully he wouldn't be much longer.

~

Half an hour later, Newton went downstairs to unlock the door for a very restless Raleigh, but not before a muttered comment about picking up a phone.

“He’s been under a lot of stress,” Hermann had pointed out.  “Calling to let us know he’s on his way is likely secondary to actually getting here.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Three minutes after that, Raleigh rushed into the room.  When he saw Yancy he immediately made a move to go towards him.

Hermann fidgeted uneasily, remembering all too well what a hungry vampire could do to a person.  Before he could decide whether he should intercept him or not, Newton did, clearly thinking along similar lines.  

"Uh, might wanna hold off on the hugging, just for a little bit."

Raleigh didn't look pleased about it.  Neither did Yancy, for that matter, but Hermann could see the same look on Yancy's face that he'd seen on Newton's from time to time.  One he'd come to realize was a thirst for blood.  He doubted Yancy would deliberately hurt his brother, but a hungry vampire -- especially a new one -- couldn't always control their urges.  Though, he did remember the night before -- how even feral and maddened, Yancy hadn't attempted to attack Raleigh.

"How are you?"

"I feel like hell, but I'm not in a coma, so I guess it's an improvement."

Raleigh looked like he was fighting back tears.  Hermann felt as though he and Newton were intruding on what should have been a private family moment.

"Newton, may I see in you in the kitchen?"

Newt blinked at him, clearly not getting the hint.  "Huh?  Why?"

He stared at him meaningfully and nodded in what he certainly hoped was a subtle fashion at Yancy and Raleigh.

Newton squinted at him.  " _Oh_.  Right.  The kitchen.  The... thing."

He resisted the urge to cover his face in his hand.  Fortunately neither of the Beckets seemed to notice Newton's fumbling.

"You guys stay here and talk," Newton said.  "I'm gonna get some coffee.  Remember, no hugging.  Either of you want any?"

"No thanks," Raleigh said, "I don't drink coffee."

He stared at him for a long moment.  "You work in a-- never mind."  He walked across the room towards him hurriedly and Hermann found himself being herded into the kitchen.

"Okay," Newt whispered as they reached the kitchen.  "Why am I coming in here to brew a pot of coffee at," he glanced at the time on the microwave, "ten pm?"

"I have no idea,” Hermann hissed.  “ _You're_  the one who said it."

"I panicked!  What else was I gonna say, Hermann?  'You guys hang out here while I go bake a cake?'  What's the deal?"

"I wanted to give them some privacy."

"I’m not so sure that's a good idea."

"I doubt Yancy's in danger of leaping across the room and attacking his brother at this point, and we're still close-by, if anything _does_  happen.  Besides, you yourself said Yancy was stable.”

“Yeah, stable as in _physically_  stable.  Doesn’t mean he’s gonna have expert self-control right out of the gate.   _I_  didn’t when I was--”  He cut himself off abruptly and shook his head.

“What?  What is it?”

Newt looked vaguely embarrassed.  “Well, I was gonna say ‘when I was that age,’ but then I realized I was gonna sound like a ninety-year-old.”

“You guys realize I can hear you, right?” Yancy called out from the living room.

Newton shrugged helplessly.  “Uh.  Yeah?”

Hermann sighed and shook his head at him.  “You make your coffee, if you actually want it -- though I seriously doubt this situation needs you on a caffeine high added to it.  I’m going back to the living room to attend to our guests.”

~

When Newton eventually emerged from the kitchen, they all sat and had a reasonable discussion about recent events.  Eventually, the conversation veered towards the future, and how Yancy factored into it with his sudden change of circumstance.

"I think he should stay here,” Newton eventually blurted.  He must have noticed the look on Raleigh's face, because he quickly added, "Just for a little while!  Like a couple... months, maybe."

"Months?!"

"Dude, he needs time to adjust, and it's only going to be harder for him with a walking blood bag walking in front of his nose day in and day out.  No offense."

"Do you think you could stop talking like I'm not sitting right here?" Yancy grumbled.

Newton had the grace to look a bit ashamed of himself.  "Uh, sorry.  Habit.  I mean, you've only been coherent for like an _hour_ , so..."

"Well, I'm coherent now."

"That you are," Hermann replied.

Yancy pointed at Newton.  "First of all, don't call my brother a blood bag, it's creepy."

"Yeah!" Raleigh exclaimed.

"Second, I think Newt might be right."

"Ye-- wait, what?  Yancy--"

"Look," Yancy cut him off, "I'm still... mostly really, really confused about what's going on.  I'm still halfway wondering if all this is some really crazy dream."

"Yeah, no, it isn't," Newton said.

"Not that reassuring, but also not the point.  The point is, he seems like he knows what's going on and how to handle it."

"I do!   _Thank_  you!"

Raleigh looked like he was contemplating strangling Newton, so Hermann decided to intervene.

"It's not as though we'll be holding him captive," he said.  "He'd just be living with us until he got back on his feet, so to speak, and if anything urgent arises due to his... condition, Newton will be in a better position to assist him."

"Yeah, dude, it's not like we'd be keeping him prisoner or anything."

Raleigh stared at them both for a long while.

"Come on, kid, lighten up.  It's not like I'm moving to Timbuktu."

"You're seriously okay with this?"

"I'm a whole lot of things right now and I'm not sure 'okay' is one of them, but yeah, more or less."  Yancy gave him a smile.  "Beats lying in a hospital bed for the rest of my life."

Raleigh surged forward, ignoring Newton's squeak of protest, and wrapped his arms around his brother.  "Yeah.  Yeah, it does."

Yancy returned the hug and patted him on the back.  "It's gonna be okay, Raleigh.  I think at this point the worst is behind us."

Hermann glanced at Newton and reached for his hand.  He hoped the worst was behind them, too.  It'd be a nice change of pace.

~

Yancy left with Raleigh to go pick up some of his things -- clothes included.  The poor man was still wearing the hospital gown they'd caught him in the night before.

"Are you sure letting them go alone is wise?"

“They'll be fine, okay?  If Yancy was going to snap and try to eat everyone at this point, I think he already would've done it.  Am I a little uneasy about letting him go?  Yeah.  Do I think he's going to go on a murder spree in the hour or so he's gonna be gone?  Not so much."  

He collapsed onto the couch beside Hermann like his strings had been cut.  

Hermann turned his attention to him.  Things had been so hectic the night before when he’d returned.  They’d all been in such a scramble to tend to Yancy that he hadn’t really had the time to ask him what exactly had happened at Raiju.  Hannibal had, so far, seemed disinclined to hurt Newton, but that didn’t mean he trusted him not to.  Especially considering how he had hurt him in the past.

“Are you alright?”

Newton tilted his head against the back of the couch.  “Yeah, just tired.  Not-- I mean, not physically tired, obviously, but my brain feels like it wants to dribble out my ears.”

“I know the feeling.”

There was a pleasant lull to the atmosphere, a quiet moment in what had been an otherwise emotionally charged day, and he hated to ruin it, but the sooner it was out in the open, the better.  It wasn’t something he could hide for long, even if he’d wished to.

"Now that we have some time to ourselves, there's something I need to discuss with you."

He blinked at him warily.  “Is it a good something or a bad something?”

“I suppose that’s a matter of perspective.”

“Well, that’s a weird non-answer.  What is it?”

“I was informed today that word of my… extracurricular activities around campus reached my superiors.  They told me to come back tomorrow and pack my office.”

Newt stared at him for a moment, like he wasn’t quite processing what he was saying.  Then his eyes widened.  "You got fired?!"

"I was suspended pending a review.  It's not exactly the same."

"It's not exactly the same, but it's _pretty much_ the same thing, Hermann!  Only minus the actual 'we're firing' you part.  Assholes!"

"It wasn't as though they didn't have valid reasons."

Newt took off his glasses and covered his face in his hands.  "This is my fault," he groaned.

"This is _our_  fault," Hermann gently corrected.  "I did what I did willingly, if you'll recall."

Newton removed his hands from his face and turned on the couch, leaning towards him.  

"Want me to bite someone?"

"No."

"Do you-- do you want me to go _yell_ at someone?  Because I feel like yelling.  I have a whole speech prepared about how your the best teacher they have and--"

"Newton."  He reached out and patted his hand.  "No."

He had no doubt that Newton could and would storm over there and make a scene on Hermann's behalf, but that wasn't going to help matters.

"Dude, I don't get how you can be so calm about this."

"I had wanted to quit for some time now.  I'd have rather had a new job on the horizon first, of course, but... it's fine."  That and, compared to the week he'd been having, losing his job seemed blessedly mild in comparison.  “It could be worse.”

“It could be worse?   _How_?”

“Newton, I entered a student’s residence under false pretenses during an active investigation of a murder that happened on-campus.  I’m lucky the student isn’t pressing charges for the intrusion.  Or that nobody seemed to find my poking around suspicious enough to question _why_  I was doing it.  After all, as far as the police are concerned, this is still an unsolved murder investigation.”

“Actually, as far as they’re concerned, it’s an unsolved series of ‘animal attacks.’  I mean, even if they had a reason to suspect a person was doing it, there’s nothing to actually connect you to any of it.”  He paused.  “Uh, I hope.”

“You’re probably right.”

“It still sucks, though,” Newt protested.  “If you hadn’t gone to Bernard’s place--”

“Then we may never have discovered what was really going on,” Hermann interjected.  “I’d do it again, if I had to.”

"We'll be okay," Newton said, finally, not looking entirely convinced.  "I've got some money saved."

“As do I.”

Newt took a deep breath.  “Wow, here’s hoping that’s the last of our bad luck, huh?”

“Hopefully.”

The other man leaned in and kissed him.  Hermann felt the lingering tension in his chest uncoil and give way to a pleasant warmth.  

“I mean, who knows, you might end up with a _better_  job!  One you’re not way, way overqualified for.”

“Mmm.”

He wasn’t sure how likely it was, but it would certainly be a nice change.  

Newton groaned suddenly and covered his face with one of the couch pillows.  "Dude, I didn't think any of this through.  Where are we gonna keep him?  He can't stay in that closet we locked him in.  I didn't even ask if _you_  were okay with this -- with some guy you barely know moving in with us, and--"

"We'll think of something," Hermann replied, "and I am."

“Maybe we can throw him in the garage,” Newt said, voice muffled.

“We are not throwing him in the garage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All that's left is the epilogue! Which as of the posting of this chapter is about 50% done. Thanks for sticking with me, guys.


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